Emergency Beds Available, Emergency Bed Usage, and Shelter Turn-Aways

Emergency bed nights measure the nights spent by individuals in single night stay shelters, meaning that the person must arrive and sign in to the shelter each day. Transitional housing is defined as housing and services provided for individuals and families for a maximum of two years. Permanent supportive housing provides housing and services for persons with disabilities with no time limit or service restrictions. Both transitional and permanent supportive housing provides not only shelter to families with children and persons with disabilites, but also guidance and instruction to build skills leading to self-sufficiency.

Overall, the total bed count has risen by 14% and the total number of family units has increased by 58% in Pierce County since 2008 with the greatest strides being made in transitional housing and permanent supportive housing for families with children.

Source: Pierce County Department of Community Services – Housing Programs

Source: Pierce County Department of Community Services – Housing Programs

Shelter Numbers Served

Emergency bed use reflects the number of times in a year the bed itself is utilized, and not an unduplicated count of individuals using emergency bed services.

During the past two years, the numbers of emergency bed nights has increased more than 250%. In 2009, the number of emergency bed nights totaled over 45,000 compared to 16,873 in 2007 and 23,020 in 2008.

Source: Associated Ministries ESAP Data

Shelter Turn-Aways

A turnaway is an incident when a shelter or a homeless prevention service (such as emergency rental payments, security deposits, case management, and eviction prevention services) is not able to accommodate a request for shelter. There are several reasons for turnaways. Most often, people are turned away because shelters are full or emergency payment services are not able to provide financial support. People may be turned away from several shelters in their attempt to find emergency housing. Each attempt is reported, meaning that that a person may be turned away from one shelter, counted there, and turned away from another shelter and counted again.

Emergency Shelter Assistance Program (ESAP) funds are often part of a prevention/intervention package put together at the community level. This package may include a family's personal resources, emergency assistance from the local Department of Social and Health Services office, contributions from religious organizations, local government funds and federal funds from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), or the Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG) program.

The number of individuals turned away from emergency shelter services in Pierce County has risen from 43,391 in 2001-2002, to 76,353 in 2005-2006. In 2003-2004, 83,162 were turned away, the highest number reported during this period.

Source: Washington CTED ESAP Client Characteristics