Every January, teams of volunteers spend a night fanned out across the region trying to get an accurate count of the number of people dealing with homelessness and though the overall number of people living on the streets of King County increased greatly this year, Renton actually saw a small decrease in its number.

This year, in the early morning hours of Jan. 23, volunteers with the Committee to end Homelessness counted 79 people living outside in our city. In total, volunteers found 3,772 people living outside in King County.

Last year, the count found 96 in Renton and a total of 3,123 in King County.

“We need to recognize homelessness as a crisis and not a given,” CEH Director Mark Putnam said in a press release. “All of us, our entire community, must rally together if we are to end homelessness, and today’s count gives us new data on the enormity of our challenge.”

In Renton, volunteers included members of the administration, city council, staff and average citizens, all of whom gave up their night to search for those in need.

Volunteer Stuart Avery said he was hopeful this year because the numbers in the area he counted – the west side of Rainier Avenue – decreased for the second year in a row, but because the overall numbers told a different story he thinks perhaps it was just construction that chased people from traditional areas for overnight parking or camping. He said his area traditionally has the highest count in the city – and did again this year –  even if there were fewer people to be counted.

“The grim reality this year was that my areas reduction was not the norm, and that the overall count regionally was up 20 percent over last year,” Avery said.

While Avery has volunteered for four years now, this year was the first that Councilman Armondo Pavone volunteered for the count and he called it “pretty eye-opening stuff.”

“Walking into neighborhoods and finding people sleeping in cars under blankets; it’s always startling to see that,” he said.

Pavone said while his group did not see any families this year, they did come across a man who was sleeping in his car near the Salvation Army building. Pavone said the car window was broken and the man was under a few blankets, but the scene felt “really out of place” and he said that image will stay with him a while.

“It’s one thing to talk about the homeless, it’s another thing to actually see it,” he said.

Both Avery and Pavone said they were glad they participated and said they would continue to work to try and end homelessness both in Renton and the region in general.

“It definitely makes you see things differently,” Pavone said. “Even though you know it’s out there, it’s a different thing to be out there at 3 a.m. and see someone sleeping in a car.”

Both he and Avery said it gave them a sense of how quickly things can go wrong for anyone.

“Regardless of the seemingly strong economic recovery, the 20 percent increase in the overall numbers should be a clear sign that recovery isn’t across the board, and that we must look at funding solutions,” Avery said. “If as a region, we can poor tens of millions into a tunneling project in Seattle, can’t we find a way to fund basic human needs like food and shelter for the most vulnerable?”