The number of homeless people in Kent keeps going up.
A total of 165 homeless people were counted in Kent in the early hours Friday as part of the 36th annual One Count in King County, according to the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, which organized the count by more than 1,100 volunteers.
Kent had 135 homeless people counted last year, more than double the number from 2014. Previous counts included 60 in 2014, 53 in 2013 and 104 in 2012. This year’s count included 21 men, seven women, one minor under age 18 and 136 whose gender was unknown.
Volunteers fanned out across the county to count the number of men, women and children who were homeless and sleeping outdoors without shelter between 2 and 5 a.m.
The count of people without shelter was 4,505 countywide, a 19 percent jump from last year. The coalition says the number is assumed to be an under-count, because people do not count everywhere, and because many people take great care not to be visible.
“The One Night Count reveals the scope of the human tragedy of homelessness in our region,” County Executive Dow Constantine said in a media release. “The results confirm the state of emergency and underscore the urgent need to work together – at every level of government and with our community partners – to create the housing, treatment, employment and other services that thousands of adults, children and families in King County need right now.
“We continue to call on our Legislature and Congress to recognize this growing humanitarian crisis and take immediate action.”
People were found trying to survive in cars and tents, riding late night buses, or curled up in blankets under bridges or in doorways.
Sixty homeless people in Kent were found in bushes or undergrowth, 42 in cars or trucks, 21 at bus stops, 14 walking around and the rest in parking garages, on benches, in structures, under overpasses, in alleys and doorways.
The reasons people are without shelter include a lack of affordable housing, poverty, unemployment, untreated mental illness or addiction and domestic violence, according to the Coalition on Homelessness.
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