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News Release – July 1, 2026 |
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Executive Zahilay and Mayor Wilson Announce Immediate Actions to Stabilize, Right Size, and Reset Regional Homelessness Authority
Seattle – Today, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced a three-step plan to stabilize, right size, and reset the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA). The plan prioritizes maintaining critical regional services for people experiencing homelessness and launches immediate actions to improve oversight and protect the integrity of public funds.
The joint plan bolsters fiscal controls, refocuses KCRHA on its core responsibilities as King County’s Continuum of Care lead entity, and transitions the management of city and county funded contracts back to King County and the City of Seattle. These actions put KCRHA in a strong position to apply for and manage federal funding for homelessness, which supports the entire region.
The changes follow an April 2026 independent forensic evaluation that identified significant concerns related to KCRHA's financial management, governance structure, and internal controls and was a call to action.
“KCRHA was created because homelessness is a regional challenge, and I continue to believe a regional response is the right approach,” said Executive Zahilay. “But believing in a regional response also means making sure it works. After years of leadership turnover, multiple audits, and an independent forensic evaluation, it became clear that changes were needed. Today’s actions are about stabilizing KCRHA, right sizing its focus on the work it is best positioned to lead, and resetting the future vision of our system. This is what better government looks like: acting on what we’ve learned, making difficult decisions, strengthening accountability, and making sure public resources deliver the greatest possible impact. This transition will take time, and we’ll work closely with service providers, local governments, labor, people with lived experience, philanthropic partners, and communities across our region every step of the way as we build a stronger regional response to homelessness.”
“We're taking decisive action to address KCRHA's challenges while maintaining the continuity of the critical services they administer,” said Mayor Katie Wilson. “The steps we're taking today will let the agency focus on rebuilding public trust, making a strong application for federal funding, and helping our city and region deliver better outcomes for people experiencing homelessness."
Immediate Stabilization
Following the release of the forensic evaluation in April, Executive Zahilay and Mayor Wilson directed KCRHA to address high-risk findings and develop a corrective action plan. The agency submitted its corrective action plan on May 22.
To strengthen oversight, the City and County will jointly embed an independent financial monitoring firm in KCRHA through the end of the year. Beginning in July, the firm will work with leadership to improve invoicing and strengthen controls, while supporting timely payments to service providers.
In addition, the City and County will work with KCRHA and partners to submit a competitive application for the 2026 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Notice of Funding Opportunity, due this August, by advising on the Continuum of Care strategy and an effective response to funding requirements.
Right Sizing KCRHA
KCRHA manages a large scope of work, including procuring and managing contracts for regional homelessness services and managing approximately $200 million in local, state, and federal homelessness funding.
This plan right sizes the agency to focus on core services that preserve the broader system of housing and service resources required to move people out of homelessness by:
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Coordinating the regular Continuum of Care application to HUD for federal funding;
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Overseeing the Coordinated Entry System, managing referrals to permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing;
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Managing the Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS), a local database to understand service provider use and housing outcomes for people and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness;
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Conducting the Point in Time (PIT) Count, a federally mandated annual count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness over one night in January; and
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Coordinating severe weather activations to protect unsheltered people.
The narrower scope will reduce KCRHA’s administrative burden and allow the agency to focus on regional coordination and other key Continuum of Care functions that makes the agency a strong applicant for continued federal funding.
As part of stabilizing and right sizing the agency’s operations, the County and City will develop a comprehensive Contracts Transfer Plan to shift homelessness service contracts to the County’s Housing and Community Development Division within the Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) and the City’s Human Services Department (HSD).
The transfer plans will be submitted to the King County and Seattle City Councils by August 1. Contract administration responsibilities will begin transitioning from KCRHA to DCHS and HSD in January 2027.
The County and City will partner closely with service providers throughout the transition to maintain continuity of funding and services and make sure they have the information and support needed.
Regional Reset
Executive Zahilay and Mayor Wilson remain committed to a regional approach to homelessness. In addition to resetting by refocusing the agency on its core regional responsibilities as King County's Continuum of Care, Executive Zahilay and Mayor Wilson will engage jurisdictions, service providers, labor and businesses, philanthropic partners, and people with lived experience to reset the future evolution of KCRHA.
As part of his Breaking the Cycle Executive Order announced in March, Executive Zahilay convened a cross-sector Breaking the Cycle Workgroup to develop policy recommendations to improve outcomes and coordination in the homelessness, addiction, behavioral health, and incarceration continuum. The workgroup’s report, due on November 30, 2026, will help inform the county’s future efforts to create more holistic systems that meet the scale of homelessness in our region, increase affordable housing options, and address upstream systems to reduce the number of people entering homelessness.
The Mayor and Executive also see opportunities for more detailed input through additional interjurisdictional processes, in partnership with the KCRHA Governing Board. The City and County will jointly convene “Regional Reset Conversations” with jurisdictions, service providers, labor and business, philanthropic partners, and people with lived experience to make recommendations by the first quarter of 2027 on this question.
What Partners and Providers Are Saying
Representative Nicole Macri
"The idea behind a regional response to homelessness remains the right one — our solutions cannot stop at city boundaries. But regional coordination must be matched by a real sense of urgency, strong financial stewardship, clear lines of responsibility, and public confidence. This plan delivers on those values by advancing the stronger accountability and clearer oversight that taxpayers deserve, and a more stable foundation for the regional homelessness response moving forward. Most importantly, it keeps our focus on the people who depend on these services."
Joint statement from King County Councilmembers Jorge L. Barón and Steffanie Fain and Seattle City Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dionne Foster
“The framework presented by Executive Zahilay and Mayor Wilson is an important step toward strengthening the region's homelessness response while protecting continuity of care for the people who rely on these critical human services. Improving KCRHA’s internal financial controls and accountability is central to this effort.
“We support preserving KCRHA's role in leading the region's application for federal homelessness funding and are committed to ensuring that any transition of City and County contracts is well-coordinated and contiguous. Throughout this transition, the priority should be to minimize disruption for service providers, whose work is essential for the individuals and families who depend on the homelessness response system.
“At the same time, contracts transitioned to King County and the City of Seattle must be administered with transparency and strong fiscal stewardship. Providers need predictable and reliable contracting systems so they can remain focused on serving their communities, and the public should have confidence that homelessness resources are managed efficiently and effectively. As King County and Seattle City Councilmembers, we will continue exercising our oversight responsibility to help ensure those standards are met. This announcement advances a process established via legislation we co-sponsored in our respective councils, directing the Executive and Mayor to deliver a plan regarding next steps for the authority in August. We look forward to reviewing those plans in detail and working through them with our colleagues on both bodies.
“We appreciate the collaboration between the Mayor and Executive on this framework and will continue working with them and our respective legislative branches to support consistent contracting and administrative processes across both jurisdictions. This transition should strengthen accountability, provide greater stability for providers, preserve regional coordination, and improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.”
King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda
“The most important thing right now for our region’s homelessness response system is stability—stability of housing and services for people experiencing homelessness, stability for the providers delivering essential services, and stability in the funding that makes this work possible. I appreciate that the County Executive, the Mayor, and our regional partners are working together to chart a path forward that protects people experiencing homelessness, supports our service providers, and shores up against cuts to critical federal resources. At a time when uncertainty at the federal level is creating chaos in communities across the country, our region is stepping up to work together and care for our most vulnerable neighbors. There is still important work ahead, and many details remain to be worked out, but I am optimistic that through partnership and shared commitment we can build a more stable and effective system - that is what our community deserves.”
King County Regional Homelessness Authority CEO Dr. Kelly Kinnison
"KCRHA’s role is transitioning, but the need for a regional homelessness response has not changed. KCRHA remains the place where dedicated staff wake up every day focused on how homelessness is experienced across our region — across different communities, geographies, providers, and systems. As we move into this next phase, our commitment is to work with Seattle, King County, providers, federal partners, people with lived experience, and communities across the region to protect continuity, maintain essential infrastructure, and build a clearer, more accountable regional backbone."
Downtown Seattle Association President & CEO Jon Scholes
"Homelessness is a regional crisis that requires urgency and a coordinated regional response, and the growing challenges in downtown Seattle and across King County make it clear that a reset is needed. We support an approach that is focused on delivering better outcomes for our unsheltered neighbors while strengthening accountability, transparency, and coordination among our public partners. Most importantly, this effort must restore public confidence that our local governments can work together to produce meaningful, measurable results."
Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Joe Nguyen
"The business community has long supported a regional approach to addressing homelessness, but regional solutions must also be accountable and effective. We appreciate the Executive and Mayor taking the necessary steps to stabilize KCRHA, strengthen oversight, and position the organization to better serve our unhoused neighbors and the communities we all care about."
Mayor of Auburn & KCRHA Governing Board Member Nancy Backus
“Homelessness does not stop at city borders, and our response cannot either. Communities across South King County see this reality every day, which is why I continue to believe a regional approach can and should work. But for that approach to succeed, it must be grounded in clear goals, strong financial oversight, and real accountability at every level.
I appreciate King County and the City of Seattle taking important steps to stabilize the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and refocus it on the core regional work it is uniquely positioned to lead. This reset is an important opportunity to rebuild trust, strengthen coordination, and give local governments the clarity they need to move forward.
I want to see a regional system that works for every community in King County, and I believe this is a necessary step toward building a more accountable and effective response to homelessness.”
Jane Hopkins, President, SEIU 1199 NW
“Our members support strengthening accountability, protecting services, and maintaining the focus on housing people. We are encouraged by today's announcement of a new roadmap forward by King County Executive Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Wilson.”
Daniel Malone, Executive Director, DESC
"Executive Zahilay and Mayor Wilson are taking prudent steps to strengthen our community's homelessness response system. I appreciate the assessment their teams have made to ensure the coming transitions are well planned and services will continue uninterrupted."
Dr. Susan McLaughlin, Director, Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS)
“King County remains focused on partnering with local jurisdictions to expand permanent supportive housing, affordable housing options, and enhanced shelter to meet the urgent needs of the region. Resetting and right sizing the Regional Homelessness Authority is a part of the overall strategy and commitment to address the homelessness crisis countywide. DCHS has decades of experience managing complex federal and local housing and homelessness investments. Transitioning contracts back to the County allows KCRHA to focus on the necessary and important regional work while maintaining stability for housing and service providers.”
Tanya Kim, Director, Human Services Department
“Seattle’s homelessness service providers are essential partners in helping people move toward safety, stability, and housing. As contract administration transitions back to the Human Services Department, our focus will be on maintaining service continuity, and supporting timely and clear communication with providers. HSD will work closely with King County, KCRHA, and providers to make this transition as coordinated and stable as possible for the people who depend on these services.”
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