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Homelessness up by 7 percent in Washington despite it's down nationwide

File: Seattle design officials are taking into consideration the homeless crisis when looking over designs for the proposed Judkins Light Rail Station. (AP)

A point-in-time counts found 7.3 percent more homeless people in Washington state this year than in 2015.

The Seattle Times reports that according to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report released Thursday there were 1,408 more people sleeping outside an in shelters.

>> Check out which local communities have homeless populations that are going down. Read the department of housing and development report here. 

The increase is the second-largest in the country, falling only behind California. In all, there were 20,827 homeless people counted in Washington.

>> Related: Camping in the end zone: How Seattle's homeless crisis is spilling onto playfields

Homelessness has grown in the Seattle-King County area while it has dropped in Everett-Snohomish County, Tacoma-Pierce County, Spokane, Yakima, Vancouver-Clark County and the rest of Washington.

>> Related: How many homeless people has Seattle moved to housing?

Overall 13 states saw increases from 2015 to 2016. In seven, including Washington, at least half of the people counted were sleeping without shelter.

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