Homeless people being bused to Tri-Cities? Advocates say there’s no truth to claim

It’s a claim many Tri-Citians have probably heard, “Homeless people are being bused to the Tri-Cities from Seattle.” But is there any truth to the persistent rumor?

The rumor started gaining steam in 2019 after a King County council attempt to secure $1 million to help reunite people experiencing homelessness with their family members who could help them.

At the time, one of their major concerns was that the Seattle area was on the receiving end of similar efforts to move the unhoused out of other cities.

Any number of factors can lead to someone becoming homeless in an area where they have no support system, and the programs aim to help these people get back to relatives or friends who are willing to assist.

Homeward Bound programs

There was serious pushback against the Seattle-area initiative, according to news reports at the time, and it ultimately failed.

The county approved just $100,000 for family reunification efforts, compared to the $37,000 across five family reunification initiatives that had been funded prior. That $37,000 helped about 115 people, according to a KING5 report.

A similar program in San Francisco also made headlines around the same time and King County councilors pointed to a program in San Diego.

Despite the fact that the King County initiative never got off the ground, the idea was in the public mind and the rumors continued to gain steam.

About two years ago Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier repeated the claim in a public meeting, and recently broached the subject again earlier this summer.

He’s hardly the only person who has addressed the claims, but Didier has a much larger platform than most as an elected official and the current chairperson of Franklin County Commission, as well as his status as a local celebrity, due to his high profile NFL career that included two Super Bowl championships.

The Herald reached out to Seattle and King County officials, as well as local nonprofit advocates to get to the bottom of the claims.

A spokeswoman for the King County Regional Homeless Authority said there is no widespread busing program.

“The idea of a busing program is a myth. If anyone is being bused to the Tri-Cities, it’s for family unification, and the person getting on the bus would have to share where they are going and why,” Anne Martens told the Herald in an email.

Martens said such reunification efforts for individuals are usually facilitated by a shelter or outreach provider.

The Herald also obtained data from the Washington Department of Commerce listing the “city of last residence” for people who participated in the annual Point in Time count survey, which seeks to get an idea of how many people are on the streets on a single morning in January.

The Point in Time count typically makes contact with between 100 and 150 people in the Tri-Cities. The past few years numbers have been a bit lower as federal COVID aid had helped local housing authorities pay for more emergency housing.

The purpose of the survey is to find the people with the most critical needs in the community and get more information in order to help them find services.

The data showed that the people experiencing homelessness in the Tri-Cities are overwhelmingly from the Tri-Cities.

Over a three year period from 2020 to 2022, only four people in 2020 and seven in 2022 told volunteers they were from outside Benton and Franklin counties.

Specific cities where people came from, or how many years they’d lived in the area, were not available because data with fewer than 15 participants is masked by the state in order to protect privacy.

Many cities have nonprofits that can help reunite people living on the streets with family or support systems in their hometowns, but it’s rare and always involves the cooperation of the support in the area the person is being sent to.

It’s just as likely that someone is being given a ticket from the Tri-Cities to get to family in other areas.

United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties director LoAnn Ayers said that occasionally local organizations have helped with tickets to get someone to family or to a place where they have safe and stable housing, but there isn’t an official local program either.

She also told the Herald that often police departments and other law enforcement agencies have officers who take it upon themselves to help people by buying a bus ticket, in order to help someone they’ve had frequent contact with to get back to family.

Those tickets are either paid for through auxiliary funds or out of the officer’s own pocket.

Andrew Porter, executive director of Tri-City Union Gospel Mission, which oversees the only emergency shelters in the Tri-Cities, also pushed back on the pervasive claim in an email to the Herald.

“The narrative that Seattle is busing homeless people to the Tri-Cities is simply not true, and I’m 100% certain of that,” Porter wrote. “We are not encountering that at all on the street or with the people entering our shelters. We gather that information at intake when someone comes into our facilities to stay.“

Homelessness in Tri-Cities

While the Tri-Cities certainly has challenges with homelessness, it isn’t because someone is sending busloads of people over the Cascades.

The state maintains a robust Homeless Management Information System to track the effectiveness of housing and aid programs. The most recent data shows that on average, a person experiencing homelessness in the Tri-Cities has been homeless is 112 days in Benton County and 298 days in Franklin County.

There are about 6,000 people in Benton and Franklin Counties considered at-risk of becoming homeless, according to the data from the state.

One of the primary drivers of homelessness in the Tri-Cities, is a shortage of affordable housing.

The cost of rent for the average 1-bedroom apartment has nearly doubled over the past decade, according to data from the University of Washington Center for Real Estate Research.

The state’s data also shows that the Tri-Cities tends to use housing funds more effectively than other areas of the state, with better long-term results.

Unfortunately increased funding for many emergency housing programs ended this summer, which has left experts bracing for an increase in homelessness this fall.