Encampments as neighbors: Amenity access and encampment choice among Seattle, WA’s unhoused population

In the United States, no jurisdiction guarantees the basic conditions necessary for health, such as stable housing, even as homelessness continues to intensify. King County, Washington, the twelfth largest U.S. county, hosts the fourth largest homeless population, many of whom reside in Seattle. Discouraging encampments and providing shelter beds has proven ineffective. We investigate how street survivors make encampment choices based on the proximity of amenities compared to those in emergency shelters and rental units. We analyze rich spatial, administrative, and outreach worker data from Seattle’s Evergreen Treatment Services (REACH) on individuals living in tents and on the street from 2016 to 2022. We discuss the implications of providing effective support for people living unhoused and provide, to our knowledge, the most comprehensive and recent study of neighborhood access and proximity to amenities among the unsheltered population in Seattle, WA. We find that, in most neighborhoods, encampment locations are more closely aligned with the access patterns of people renting housing across a range of amenities. Additionally, certain amenities, especially food-related ones, excluding food banks, were located closer to encampments than to shelters, suggesting that they may offer opportunities for personal agency in meeting basic needs, making food choices, and accessing WiFi. We conclude that housing options that feel like homes rather than institutions are crucial in supporting the unhoused. Our findings suggest that emergency shelters should be more integrated into neighborhoods and better reflect the trends of tent encampments and rentals.