2025 LSA Shows Decreased Need for Homeless Services

2025 Longitudinal Systems Analysis Shows Decreased Need for Homeless Services, Increase in Successful Exits to Stability

Erin Hut, Communications Director, [email protected]

Monday, March 16, 2026 at 2:57 p.m.

Data from the City of Spokane's 2025 Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) shows fewer people are entering the homeless system, fewer people are relying on services within the system, and more people are successfully exiting homelessness into stability.

The LSA is an annual report submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that provides a detailed, system-wide view of how people experiencing homelessness interact with services over time. It uses data from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to track patterns related to system entries and exits, length of time people are homeless, their returns to homelessness, and demographics and service utilization.

In 2025, the City of Spokane saw an 11 percent decrease in the number of people accessing City-funded homeless services compared to the year prior. Through its various programs, the City served 6,430 people in 2025, compared to 7,221 in 2024.

"We believe the primary driver behind the decline in people entering the homeless system is the progress made through expanded homelessness and eviction prevention efforts. By strategically investing these resources, we've focused on connecting people with the right support at the right time, which has resulted in stabilizing households before a crisis leads to homelessness," Housing and Human Services Director Dawn Kinder said.

Throughout the past two years, the City of Spokane Housing and Human Services Department has moved away from one large congregate shelter to a navigation center-scattered site shelter model. The navigation center serves as a specialized facility offering comprehensive support services during daytime hours, when most emergency shelters are closed. It focuses on connecting residents with mental health care, addiction treatment, and housing placement services through individualized case management.

The City has also opened eight scattered site shelters, each of which serves between 15 and 30 people at a time. These sites offer emergency shelter, as well as a various wraparound services including long-term case management, substance use disorder treatment, supported respite and recuperative care, primary care, peer recovery, school and family connections, and housing placement.

The City of Spokane also launched coordinated street outreach teams, which travel throughout the four designated police precinct boundaries, connecting unhoused individuals to emergency shelter, housing, and critical services.

Other key metrics from the LSA include:

"This year's LSA report shows trends moving in the right direction. For the past two years, the City of Spokane has been working diligently to build out a system founded on proven interventions and coordination," Mayor Lisa Brown said. "From the navigation center to our scattered sites to our eviction prevention programs, we are investing in solutions that work and that is being demonstrated in the positive outcomes we are seeing."

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