Changing Support Needs Among Adults Experiencing Homelessness: Washington State Apple Health Clients, 2019-2023

This report describes the distribution of single adults experiencing homelessness across five categories of support needs—low service use, health care needs, criminal legal involvement, primary mental illness, and significant care needs—over time from 2019 to 2023. We find that the number of single adults experiencing homelessness has increased by 8 percent over this period. This increase was largely due to growth in the number of people experiencing homelessness in the low service use category, and declines in the number of people exiting homelessness from one year to the next. Individuals in the criminal legal involvement category of support needs were the least likely to exit homelessness from one year to the next compared to those in other categories. The findings highlight (a) the need for low-barrier housing to prevent new episodes of homelessness among those with relatively few other support needs and (b) supportive housing services for those exiting the criminal legal system.