The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) will see more than 75% of its budget slashed and lay off dozens of workers as King County and Seattle take back control of $160 million worth of homeless services contracts.
It comes after financial management issues and a lack of organizational policy to have controls over gift card and purchase card spending.
“It does not mean King County or the City of Seattle are walking away from regional collaboration.” King County Executive Girmay Zahilay said in a press conference, “We remain firmly committed to a regional homelessness response system. What is changing is how responsibilities will be organized so that every part of our homelessness response is being carried out by the organizations that are best equipped to do that work.”
The contracts are between the city, the county—or both—and the service providers that provide housing, shelter, or mental and behavioral health services.
KCRHA will focus on being the designated grant recipient for federal funding, managing the coordinated entry system that matches a person with shelter or housing, and the homeless management information system that tracks service provider funding, creates maps, and other tracking that KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison said service providers were hoping for before the KCRHA was formed.
“It would be terrible, in my opinion, as a public servant. To let all of that go after millions of dollars and multiple years were spent building that up to where it can really inform decision-making.” Kinnison said in a press scrum after Wednesday’s press conference.
KCRHA’s budget will be reduced by nearly $203 million in 2026, by nearly 80 percent, though the exact figure is still being hashed out and will be part of the final plan Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katy Wilson will present to their respective councils on August 1.
Part of that, Kinnison expects up to 30 of the KCRHA’s 70 staff members to be laid off. While Wilson did not have an estimate, Zahilay says up to 12 people will be hired to manage contracts, as the county’s Department of Community and Human Services did prior to the KCRHA’s creation in 2021.
“This agency was given incredible responsibility without sufficient capacity or authority to really effectively create and drive an overall strategy for addressing the homelessness crisis in our region,” Wilson said.
City Councilmembers Bob Kettle, Dionne Foster, Alexis Mercedes Rinck announced support for this change and the desire to keep a regional approach to homelessness, as did King County Councilmembers Stephanie Fain and Jorge Barón.
City Councilmember Maritza Rivera and County Councilmember Rod Dembowski have introduced legislation to dissolve the agency, also supported this step, but hope it goes further.
“Consistent with our joint call to wind down the KCRHA, we support Mayor Wilson and Executive Zahilay taking the first step by returning the bulk of the homeless service provider contracts to the City and the County. We stand ready to support their efforts and will work to ensure no interruption in services for our unhoused neighbors in need,” the pair said in a statement, ”While this is not a complete dissolution of the Regional Homelessness Authority that we may have called for, it is a major step in the right direction.
Wilson does not think the legislation will pass City Council, and Zahilay believes the same of County Council.
“It’s not being dissolved, it is being strengthened, right? So we are trying to position it so that it can perform those core functions.” Wilson said.
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