Methodology

The purpose of the Housing Access Navigator is to offer housing providers, other housing stakeholders, and community members an overview of available housing resources. The possible uses for this tool are plentiful; it offers key pieces of information about each housing site, unit capacity, demand, distribution of supply, geographical context, and the needs of specific subgroups. We created this resource because we saw useful data being published and wanted to add this data to the context of the rest of the housing environment. To aid housing stakeholders and community members in addressing the ongoing housing crisis in the Pacific Northwest, we saw it as essential that those working towards safe, dignified, and sustainable housing for all are given the tools to achieve this goal. We are hoping that this tool might increase collaboration, accessibility, and efficiency in addressing the housing crisis.

While the Housing Access Navigator has the potential to grow in its geographical scope and in the scope of its content to include other kinds of housing, we elected to begin constructing the map based on the state of Washington and PSH/PH/RRH/TH/SP. While we wanted to start out with a limited scope, our plans for future development of this map include examining the rest of the Pacific Northwest region and possibly including other kinds of housing.

The primary sources for information depicted in this map are direct information from providers, King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s (KCRHA) System Performance dashboard, and the annual HUD Housing Inventory Count Report for CoC’s in the state of Washington. Secondary sources include provider websites, Google Maps, and other publicly available sources. We recognize that data from our two primary sources are limited because they only include properties and programs that are funded by these sources. Our goal is to include all relevant properties and programs within the five housing categories in Washington state. If you notice a property or program that is missing from our data, please reach out to us through the Data Inquiry form.

On the KCRHA System Performance dashboard, properties and programs may be posted several times because some may be regular PSH units while others might be units under HUD, CoC, or some other agency. Whenever this has been the case, we have added all the units and proceeded with putting them under one site on the map. With data surrounding utilization rate, homeless on entry, and percentage exiting to or maintaining permanent housing, the average number across the different kinds of units is included in the map.

Acronym Definitions

PSH – Permanent Supportive Housing

PH – Permanent Housing

RRH - Rapid Re-housing

TH - Transitional Housing

SP - Safe Parking

KCRHA – King County Regional Homelessness Authority

HUD – (Federal Government Department of) Housing and Urban Development

Data Update Frequency

Data updates from the KCRHA System Performance Dashboard are conducted whenever the dashboard is updated which is several times per year. The HUD Housing Inventory Count data is updated annually. Lunous reaches out to providers for validation of data and updates at least once every six months. The most recent updates are:

KCRHA – System Performance dashboard. Sourced through HMIS, updated on 3/1/2023. Reporting timeframe from 1/1/2022 to 12/31/2022.

HUD – HUD Housing Inventory Count Report for CoC’s in the state of Washington 2022.

Providers - Lunous last reached out to providers during Winter 2023, the next round of outreach will be conducted in Summer 2023.

Data Sources

Provider

The initial list of providers was collected from the KCRHA performance dashboard. Additional providers were added from information directly from provider websites.

Property/Program

Note that some are programs such as voucher programs while some are actual physical sites. The initial list of properties and programs was collected from the KCRHA performance dashboard, additional providers were added from information directly from provider websites.

Status

Shows whether the property or program is operational or in the pipeline. This information was collected from KCRHA, HUD, and from provider websites.

KCRHA Housing Type

Shows the designation of housing type as provided by the KCRHA System Performance Dashboard (data collected by King County from HMIS).

HUD HIC Housing Type

Shows the designation of housing type as provided by the Housing Inventory Count Report for the Seattle/King County CoC (data collected during an annual point-in-time count).

Site-based

Answers whether a property or program is site-based or scattered. This information is collected primarily from provider websites.

Waitlist

Shows the kind of waitlist system, if any, that the property or program utilizes.

Entry Requirements

Shows any requirements of guests to be able to access housing via the property or program. This information is collected from provider websites.

Unit Count

Unit counts are primarily being collected directly via contact with providers or using the KCRHA data. Note that some properties have more units than what is depicted the reason being that some properties have units that are not PSH or PH.

Households Served

Number of households served by this site or program during the reporting timeframe. This information is collected from the KCRHA System Performance dashboard.

Utilization Rate

Utilization rates are collected from the KCRHA System Performance Dashboard.

Homeless Entries

Homeless on Entry rates are collected from the KCRHA System Performance Dashboard.

Return to Homelessness

Percentage of former residents of the program or site who returned to homelessness after exiting. This information is collected from the KCRHA System Performance dashboard.

Exiting to or Maintaining Permanent Housing

Exiting to or Maintaining Permanent Housing rates are collected from the KCRHA System Performance Dashboard.

County

Indicates which county the property or program is mainly located in. This information is collected from Google and Wikipedia.

Address

Addresses are collected directly from the provider website or through a Google Maps search.

Phone Number

Phone numbers are collected directly from the provider, via the provider website, or through a Google search. Phone numbers are direct to the property or program itself, if a direct number has not been found the general number to the provider is shown instead.

Email Address/Online Form

Email addresses and links to online inquiry forms are collected from provider websites. Email addresses are direct to the property or program itself, if a direct email has not been found the general email or online form to the provider is shown instead.

Website

The website page for the property or program is linked, if no such page is found the general website of the provider is linked.

Target Subgroup – Age and Family Composition