This week Vashon will take part in two annual events to count its homeless, part of a broader effort to document the extent of homelessness in King County and obtain funding for resources.

“Vashon has never been a part of this before,” said Chris Szala, executive director of Vashon Household. “It’s so important for advocacy efforts and obtaining grants so that we can do more for the people here who need housing.”

On Thursday, the Vashon Library will be a survey point for Count Us In, King County’s annual count of homeless and unstably housed youth ages 12 to 25. And overnight from Thursday to Friday, a group of volunteers from the Vashon Social Services Network will work to make an accurate accounting of Vashon’s homeless as part of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness’ (SKCCH) One Night Count.

The SKCCH, a coming together of city staff, advocates, shelters and people who were once homeless, began the One Night Count in 1980 to gather data to inform and advocate for policies and programs to address the growing crisis of homelessness. Over the years, the count has expanded to include more than a dozen urban neighborhoods in the Seattle area from Woodinville to Federal Way, and it is the largest community-organized count of its kind in the U.S.

To perform the count, homeless shelter and transitional housing providers will be surveyed, and over 1,000 volunteers will do a street count of people living outside or in vehicles. The street count is done overnight as people are less likely to be moving around and therefore less likely to be counted twice.

Rebecca Roy, a spokeswoman for the SKCCH, said the numbers they come up with are considered conservative but reliable.

“Obviously we know the numbers are low,” she said. “Logistically it would be impossible to count everywhere, but we keep adding areas and volunteers every year, and what we do get is a good idea of the scope of the issue so that we can advocate for more funding where and how it’s needed.”

In the past the coalition’s focus has been on urban areas, as the homeless can be more difficult to locate in rural neighborhoods. But Roy said the coalition was thrilled when Szala recently asked about Vashon participating.

“The people doing the work in the communities are the ones who know where to go,” she said. “We believe this will be a good pilot and what we learn might help us expand to more areas on the Eastside and southwest in the future.”

Szala said that while Vashon hasn’t participated before and that some who work with the island’s homeless don’t see the benefit in the surveys, he believes that they are important.

Accurate information on homeless populations is now a requirement of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal law enacted in 1987 that provides money for homeless shelters and housing programs and guarantees homeless children education, transportation to school and free meals at school. School districts are required to keep a record of known homeless students in order to receive funding under the act.

“This is how you get grants for programs and projects that will help the people we’re counting,” Szala said. “If you want to get money from federal programs under the McKinney-Vento Act, you have to have numbers.”

Members of the Vashon Social Services Network, which Vashon Household is a part of, have volunteered to help with the overnight count. The Vashon Senior Center will also be open from 2 to 5 a.m. as a drop-in survey point.

“We will have teams going out to the areas where we know or think people are sleeping,” Szala said.

According to Szala and Nancy Vanderpool of Vashon’s Interfaith Council to Prevent Homelessness (IFCH), service workers are currently aware of about two dozen people on Vashon who are without shelter. The definition of “homeless” under the McKinney-Vento Act, however, is broader and includes those who have a home but cannot afford utilities, as well as people who are unstably housed, meaning they stay temporarily with someone but do not have a residence of their own. The two said it’s likely that even more islanders fall into that category.

“It’s really important for people to understand that they might qualify for help, especially the kids,” said Carrie Hennen, a project planner for King County’s Homeless Youth and Young Adult Initiative. Under the auspices of the county’s Committee to End Homelessness, the initiative began a count of its own five years ago, focusing on youth ages 12 to 25.

Working as a compliment to the One Night Count, Count Us In also collects demographic information. For example, last year’s survey showed that of the 779 youth in King County that responded, 50 percent were female, 22 percent identified as LGBTQ, 12 percent were under 18 and 51 percent were people of color. The survey also includes information on responders’ last zip code of residence and the zip code where they last spent the night in order to track where homeless youth have come from.

“Basically we’ve found that they’re coming from everywhere,” Hennen said. “We have seen responses listing almost every zip code in the state as the last zip code of residence.”

The King County Library System is a natural partner for Count Us In, Hennen said, as it participates in a program called Safe Place, which identifies the libraries as safe places for homeless youth or youth in crisis and trains library staff to help them access services.

From 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, the Vashon Library will have a table set up as a survey point. Ursula Schwaiger, the library’s children’s section supervisor, said she believes some homeless youth may use the Vashon Library as a safe place, and she hopes they participate in the survey.

“I see some young people in here that always stay until closing, and I also see them on the street, so it makes you wonder,” she said.

Schwaiger said she planned to get word out about the survey by giving posters to local schools, but noted that some young people may not know they can be included. The county hopes to reach those who aren’t traditionally homeless but stay with friends or others and are often called “couch surfers.”

According to Szala, information obtained through social service organizations shows there are currently about a dozen students at Vashon High School who are unstably housed. In King County, over 6,000 students have been identified as homeless, and there are over 30,000 homeless students in the state.

“We only have one student registered with the district as homeless, but we know there are more who are couch surfing,” said Donna Donnelly, assistant to the superintendent of the Vashon School District and the district’s homeless student liaison. “We just have no way to know how many and how to reach them to help with meals and other services.”

Emma Amiad of IFCH said that she doesn’t believe there is any value to such surveys, and she questioned whether there will be any benefit to Vashon, noting that caring for the homeless falls largely on the shoulders of nonprofits.

“We need solutions and money,” she said. “They are not addressing the real issues like mental health at all. No one has done anything, especially in rural King County.”

Still, Szala and Roy stressed the value in collecting data.

“It’s important to document the realities and acknowledge this is happening,” Roy said. “Then you can use the information as a tool to advocate for more funding and make sure that your elected officials know what you need.”

She added that some organizations also use the numbers as a reference to support their missions and goals. Numbers from the One Night Count will be available by the end of the day on Friday, while results from Count Us In should be available in March.

“If it can help us get grants for Vashon Household projects and more affordable housing for people here, why wouldn’t we do that?” Szala said.

The Count Us In youth homeless and unstably housed survey (for ages 12 to 25) can be completed at the Vashon Library between 4 and 8 p.m. Thursday. Surveys are anonymous, and no identifying information is required. The One Night Count will be performed overnight from Thursday to Friday, with a check-in point available at the Vashon Senior Center on Bank Road between 2 and 5 a.m.