This past January 25 was a cold night. Most people who could be indoors

and under the covers were. Not everyone had the choice, however. Here is how some of our King County neighbors spent that night.

“In my car.” “At my mother’s apartment.” “In a motel with help from people at a church.” “On the streets.” “At an all-night restaurant.” “Camped out with the bears and coyotes.”

Frank slept in the doorway of a store where he sometimes helps the staff. Mrs. T., who is in her late-60s, stayed in a van with her son, his wife, and their dogs. The Johnson family managed to pay for a motel after the friends they had been staying with got into trouble with their landlord for having too many people in the apartment.

Other neighbors spent the small hours of that night walking around Seattle, Renton, Bellevue, and Shoreline in small groups, keeping their voices and their flashlights low. They were looking for people huddled in doorways, behind dumpsters, and sleeping in their cars. About two dozen people rode late-night Metro buses quietly observing passengers who were trying to catch an hour of uninterrupted sleep before reaching the end of the line. Still others counted how many people were sheltering in parking lots and greenbelts, or under bridges in White Center, Kent, and Federal Way.

All 735 of these people were volunteers participating in the 27th annual One Night Count of people who are homeless in King County, organized by the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness (SKCCH). After a long night most turned in their tally sheets and went home to warm beds and showers.

We know this about Mrs. T. and her family, Frank, and the Johnson family because we interviewed them and others this past February at food banks and free community meals in south and east King County.

Starting in October the SKCCH phone starts ringing with inquiries about the One Night Count. “We need another team to help count in Bellevue,” I said to one woman. “Bellevue!” came the reply, “I didn’t think there were any homeless people in Bellevue.” Well, what can I say? There are. The 2007 One Night Count reported 128 people in Bellevue and parts of Redmond and Kirkland.

In all, 2,159 people were counted without shelter during the early morning hours on one January night. A survey of agencies which provide emergency housing and transitional shelter within the county took place on the same night and tallied 5,680 men, women, and children were in such programs. This information is in the new report, available on our web site.

Why do we do this every year? One important reason is that this is how King County meets state and federal requirements to document homelessness, and qualifies for millions of dollars to help build housing, prevent homelessness, and help people stabilize in new housing. The other reason is what I think of as Social Change 101. For years, SKCCH has responded to interest from people in suburban cities, neighborhoods, and parts of unincorporated King County to expand the One Night Count. First Kent, then the Eastside, then Federal Way, and last year Renton. These communities are acknowledging and tackling the crisis on their own doorsteps, and as they do that, they strengthen King County’s call for more resources at the local, state, and federal levels. The number of volunteers who make the One Night Count happen has been rising from year to year, another sign that homelessness is a matter of increasingly widespread concern. Public awareness about this crisis is essential in order to generate heat and light so that public officials will set priorities and allocate substantial funds.

This is also sometimes called “building the political will to end homelessness.” In a representative democracy, building the public will is usually necessary before the political will shifts into gear.

Will the information from the One Night Count change how we work to end homelessness? No. The Count is well-organized, solid, and reliable. It will always be incomplete. It is most appropriately used to gauge the need around us, rather than as a finely calibrated measure. No specific information we can gather will change the fundamental truths and associated challenges before us: we need thousands of units of permanently affordable housing, and appropriate and flexible services to support people in that housing.

We do not need a complete count to know that the numbers are too high. Two years into our community’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, we have nowhere near the needed money allocated to build, retain, and support housing for thousands of our neighbors. Regardless of its merits and limitations, the Ten Year Plan relies on substantial and sustained commitments of financial support from the non-profit, public, and private sectors in order to succeed. We have a task for the other 364 nights of every year ahead: work with determination to secure enough money to make real the hope of housing all our neighbors in safety and dignity.

Alison Eisenger is Executive Director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness (SKCCH). The group’s website is at www.homelessinfo.org.