{"id":86807,"date":"2026-06-10T19:50:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/?post_type=stories&p=86807"},"modified":"2026-06-10T19:50:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:50:34","slug":"out-of-the-shadows","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/news\/out-of-the-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of the Shadows"},"content":{"rendered":"
Eastern students hit the streets in a data-driven approach <\/span>to homelessness.<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

E<\/span>very year<\/span>, on a single night in January, dozens of volunteers fan out across the nation\u2019s cities and towns to tally the number of people living without shelter. The federally mandated exercise, called the Point-in-Time Count, is part census, part reality check. And for several years now, a team from Eastern has played a key role in making it work locally.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"An
An EWU student volunteer engages with a Spokane resident during the 2026 Point-in-Time count.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matt Anderson, an EWU professor of urban and regional planning and co-chair of Spokane\u2019s Continuum of Care Board, heads up the university\u2019s role in the count. His students help staff the effort, and afterward analyze what the numbers reveal. The goal is to give local political leaders, social service agencies and charitable organizations a data-driven picture of who is unhoused in Spokane, and why.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scale of the problem has shifted dramatically. From 2015 to 2023, Spokane\u2019s count rose from roughly 1,000 to more than 2,300. (It has since retreated to just over 1,800.) Each year between 7,000 and 8,000 people typically cycle through the city\u2019s shelter system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anderson and his students say their data routinely challenges popular assumptions. Chief among these is that Spokane\u2019s homeless population has migrated from elsewhere: The most recent count found that about 80 percent were locals, many of them lifelong residents. \u201cYou\u2019re likely to draw conclusions that are going to be skewed if you\u2019re only considering the unhoused population in the downtown core,\u201d Anderson said, \u201cbecause it\u2019s a skewed segment of the population that\u2019s concentrated down there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Allison Zimmerman, an Eastern student who participated in the 2024 count, said her experience underscored how much homelessness remains invisible, and how this shapes public attitudes. \u201cThe public often overlook those that are \u2018hidden,\u2019\u201d she says. That lack of awareness, she adds, makes it easier for people to accept punitive policies. \u201cPeople feel OK about the criminalization of being homeless,\u201d she said, in part because \u201cthey think all homeless people are dangerous.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The count, by design, captures only a single days\u2019 snapshot and almost certainly undercounts the true population. But, Anderson says, it remains the best tool available.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a long way to go,\u201d he says, \u201cbut we\u2019re at least trending in the right direction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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