Five volunteer teams in Auburn counted 110 homeless people last Friday, 13 of them men, three who were women, 94 gender unknown and none younger than 18 years old.

Guided by the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, more than 1,000 volunteers spread throughout King County to see and count how many people were living unsheltered at the time of the annual One Night Count on Jan. 29.

Volunteers estimate that 4,505 people in King County were without shelter as of the annual One Night Count, a 19 percent increase over the 3,772 found in 2015. In Auburn, 48 were found sleeping in cars or trucks, 30 in city parks, four were walking around, three were in structures and two were under roadways.

“I think some of the surprise is we didn’t see as many homeless in town as outside of the core of Auburn,” said Debbie Christian, Auburn Food Bank director and one of the co-leaders of the Auburn count. “Auburn saw fewer than the 132 we found last year, so that surprised me. But remember, it is only an estimate. We only count the people we find, and some don’t want to be found or counted. Some people know the night is coming up so they find a house to stay in, or a couple of them will get a hotel room.”

King County reports the information to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as required for the county’s annual application for more than $30 million in federal funds for homeless housing and services.

“The One Night Count reveals the scope of the human tragedy of homelessness in our region,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “The results confirm the state of emergency and underscore the urgent need to work together – at every level of government and with our community partners – to create the housing, treatment, employment and other services that thousands of adults, children and families in King County need right now. We continue to call on our legislature and Congress to act.”

“This is surely what an emergency looks like,” said Alison Eisinger, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness. “We’re grateful for the significant attention and increased resources (Seattle) Mayor (Ed) Murray and Executive Constantine have put toward addressing recent rapid increases in homelessness. It is clear that this crisis affects our whole region and demands an unprecedented response.”

“We are committed to finding solutions to the crisis of homelessness,” said Mark Putnam, director of All Home. “Though the need is great, homelessness is solvable, and by coming together as a community, we can ensure that all people have a home.”

The One Night Count is an important measure of need, and an opportunity to raise awareness and engagement among community members.

“It’s always a daunting experience to be out at that time of night and see people sleeping out there. I had three layers on including a coat, and I was freezing, and they were not wearing much more than I have on when I see them at dinner two times a week. I was slipping, it was muddy,” Christian said.

In the coming months, building on what the county learned Jan. 29, it will estimate the number of veterans, chronically homeless individuals and people living in shelter and transitional housing to form a more comprehensive picture of homelessness in King County.

All Home contracts with the coalition to complete this count.