A lot of homeless people referred to shelters in Seattle don't go. These are some reasons why

A majority of people who the city's Navigation Team referred to shelters this year did not take the referral and go to the shelter, according to new data released by the city.

But, the city said that data does come with caveats and might not be a full picture of the number of people who do go to shelters after receiving referrals.

The data shows during the first quarter of 2019, of the 203 people who received referrals to shelters from the Navigation Team, 53 of them enrolled within two days of getting that referral. That's only about one-quarter of the individuals who got referrals that actually went to the shelters.

During the second quarter of 2019, the number of individuals who took the referral from the Navigation Team and went to the shelters rose slightly to about one-third. It showed of the 224 people who were referred to shelters, 75 enrolled in the shelters within two days.

Still, the data showed the majority of unsheltered individuals did not go to the shelters to which they were referred. The Navigation Team, a group of outreach workers and Seattle Police Department personnel, is tasked with connecting unsheltered individuals with shelter and services and cleaning up homeless encampments. A shelter referral could be the result of multiple contacts and relationship building with individuals experiencing homelessness.

Will Lemke, the director of communications for the homelessness response with the city, said the data only shows a baseline of the number of people who get referrals who are going to shelters. He said it's likely there are a number of shelter enrollments that aren't being captured.

https://www.seattlepi.com/homeless_in_seattle/article/A-lot-of-homeless-people-the-city-refers-to-14504490.php?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletterspi&utm_term=spi