‘Shut this thing down’: Jake, Spike debate KCRHA’s $45M deficit as Seattle weighs its future

The Seattle City Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution for the next steps with the troubled King County Regional Homeless Authority (KCRHA), which is at a $45 million loss and can’t account for $13 million of those losses.

The resolution gives the Seattle Mayor’s Office until Aug. 1 to recommend whether to restructure, dissolve, or continue with the hard-pressed homelessness agency.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, both wondered what option Mayor Katie Wilson would recommend that would be better than shutting the agency down entirely.

“It’s an embarrassment,” Spike responded. “It’s horrible waste, fraud, and abuse, in a nutshell. You look at waste, fraud, and abuse, and I’ve got a picture of the KCRHA. There are some good actors in this; I’m sure not all of them are crooks. But that’s the thing, though: Do you just dump it and kill the entire thing and start over? They’ve already had the audit; they found the problems.”

A 45% budget jump, a 50% rise in homelessness, and $13M unaccounted for

Jake noted that the agency’s problems have grown despite “dumping money into” the program. Jake also asserted that any instances of intentional fraud should be prosecuted criminally against those liable.

“They’re aware of the problems, but they still don’t know where the money went,” Jake said. “The problems are the people. If it’s fraudulent, then those people need to go to jail. They’re $45 million in the hole. $13 million of it they can’t account for, which includes unverified accounts, accounting of cash advances, cash flow challenges, and overspending on administrative resources.

“Pre-homeless numbers in King County, they all kind of hovered right around the same number until the Regional Homeless Authority went into effect. Now they’ve increased dramatically,” Jake continued. “In 2017, 11,643 [homeless] to be exact. In 2022, the number jumps up to 13,368, and in 2024, it’s 16,868. The number since they started the KCRHA has increased by 50%. And look at their budget, it’s jumped 45% between 2022 and 2024. It went from $171 million to $249 million. They’re dumping money into this thing, which is now unaccounted for.”

Shut down the KCRHA or save it? Jake, Spike split on the path forward

Spike noted that killing the whole program may not be the best idea because of all the time and money spent getting it to where it is now, but Jake found that, since it’s currently wasting money, shutting it down may likely save a couple of dollars.

“Here’s the thing: You’ve spent so much time and effort and resources getting this thing into place and up and, not really running,” Spike said. “But are there any elements worth saving? If you start from scratch, it seems to me you’d have to go through a lot of the processes of learning and trial and error again and again.”

“Ironically, if you do start from scratch, you’re not just throwing money away, and you’re at least saving some money,” Jake responded. “No. 2, homelessness may get better on its own, because it’s certainly not getting better now. Imagine any other reaction except to shut this thing down. They are $45 million in the red, and it could be completely fraudulent.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3