Can we get better at measuring homelessness?
Someone who has to survive without a regular place to sleep at night is vulnerable to danger, illness, and the more insidious harm of being shunned. One way to quantify the harm caused by homelessness is to understand how many people are experiencing it. How do we do that? We try to count them, and one city is leading the charge on a new approach. Teo tells Clare how it could change our view of our unhoused neighbors.
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Sources in this episode:
- Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2024
- Full Point-in-Time Counts, Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada
- Point-in-Time Count Underway, King County Regional Homelessness Authority
- Point-in-Time Count presentation, King County Regional Homelessness Authority
- Evaluation of Respondent-Driven Sampling prevalence estimators using real-world reported network degree, Lisa Avery and Michael Rotondi, Sage Journal
- Point-in-Time Count: Volunteer training, Texas Homeless Network, 2020
- Point-in-Time Count standards and methodologies training, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2018
- Interview with Maria Arnes, PIT volunteer, 2026
- Interview with Jack Almquist, University of Washington, 2026
- Interview with William Towey, King County Regional Homelessness Authority, 2026
- Interview with Ann Oliva, National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2025
Sponsored
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Teo Popescu
Design, Graphics, and Data Editor
Teo is the KUOW newsroom's design, graphics, and data editor. She manages all data visualizations, graphics, illustrations, and news video projects for kuow.org and Instagram. She also leads design and development for KUOW’s interactive enterprise graphic projects. She specializes in visualizing complex bureaucratic processes and budgets.
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Clare McGrane
Senior Producer
Clare is the senior producer and co-host of Control F, a podcast about the data that shapes our daily lives. Clare and co-host Teo Popescu answer big questions about how our world works — from your personal finances to the morning weather report — by digging though data. Clare is also the show's senior producer, managing Control F's production schedule and listener engagement.
More stories from Clare McGrane »
