One year and more than $65 million into Washington state’s Right of Way Safety Initiative, nearly 300 homeless people have been moved off state highway rights of way in King County.
The Right of Way Safety Initiative closes encampments in areas around highways by providing shelter or housing to the estimated thousands of people living there.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority first began operations under the initiative in June 2022, with the majority of state funding being sent to the organization that fall.
As of July 1, 327 homeless individuals were engaged by KCRHA at some 10 encampments, with 292 of those people moved inside. Nineteen went directly to permanent housing and 273 people went to emergency housing or shelter, according to the latest data. Of those 273 people, 169 are still enrolled at emergency housing or shelter. Sixty-seven have moved on to permanent housing, and two passed away. That means a total of 86 people have been moved to permanent housing.
KCRHA’s Jeff Simms said the remaining 11% of people contacted who did not accept shelter often move from one site to another, with a smaller number of people simply refusing the offer of help.
