King County executive, Seattle mayor announce plan to reset King County homelessness authority

King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced a plan Wednesday to reset and stabilize the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA).

The plan prioritizes maintaining services for people experiencing homelessness and launches actions to improve oversight and protect public funding, according to a news release.

“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,” officials stated.

An independent forensic evaluation in April found significant concerns related to KCRHA’s financial management, governance structure, and internal controls — including $13 million in mismanaged taxpayer funds and a growing $45 million deficit.

“It’s no secret that over the past six years this organization has experienced significant leadership turnover, multiple audits, and most recently an independent forensic evaluation that identified serious concerns related to financial management, governance, and internal controls,” Zahilay said.

KCRHA submitted a corrective action plan on May 22. To strengthen oversight, the city and county will embed an independent financial monitoring firm in KCRHA through the end of the year. The firm will work with leadership to improve invoicing and strengthen controls, while supporting timely payments to service providers.

The city and county will also work with KCRHA and partners to submit an application for the 2026 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Notice of Funding Opportunity, which is due this August.

King County agency narrows its homelessness mission

The plan refocuses KCRHA on its core services that preserve the broader system of housing and move people out of homelessness. In practice, that means coordinating the annual Continuum of Care application to HUD for federal funding, overseeing the Coordinated Entry System that manages referrals to permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing, and running the Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS), a local database that tracks service use and housing outcomes for people and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

KCRHA would also continue 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 coordinating severe weather activations to protect unsheltered people.

“Executive Zahilay and Mayor Wilson remain committed to a regional approach to homelessness,” the news release stated. “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.”

The county and city will also develop a comprehensive Contracts Transfer Plan to shift homelessness service contracts to King 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.

‘Taking political responsibility’ while preserving regional coordination

Wilson framed the changes as both a course correction and an assumption of direct accountability by elected leaders.

She said KCRHA was originally created with the right idea — that homelessness is a regional crisis that doesn’t stop at city borders — but that the structure left the agency with “incredible responsibility without sufficient capacity or authority” to drive a coherent strategy.

Under the new framework, Wilson emphasized that regional collaboration is not ending, but the division of labor is being recalibrated.

“The agency will also continue to be the vehicle for coordinated entry and for our homelessness management information system. So, these are properly regional functions, and our goal here is to really allow the KCRHA to focus on those regional functions effectively and responsibly, and with accountability,” Wilson said.

Wilson also said bringing contracts back to the city and county is part of “taking political responsibility” for the homelessness response.

“I and the executive, as new elected leaders, we are really the ones who have been given the authority by voters to drive a response to this crisis, and we need to welcome and accept that responsibility,” Wilson said.

Both leaders stressed that service providers and people experiencing homelessness should not see disruptions in services as the system is reshaped.

“What is so crucial is continuity and stability for the service providers and continuity for the people that we are serving, because ultimately this work is about people,” Wilson said.

Councilmembers: Support for framework, focus on oversight

Four members of the KCRHA Governing Board, Seattle City Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dionne Foster, and King County Councilmembers Steffanie Fain and Jorge L. Barón issued a joint statement backing the broad contours of the plan while underscoring the need for strong oversight and fiscal discipline.

“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,” the group said in a statement.

The council members said they support preserving KCRHA’s role in leading the region’s federal homelessness funding applications and committed to a well-coordinated, contiguous transition of city and county contracts.

They also highlighted the need for transparent and reliable contracting systems as those responsibilities move back to Seattle and King County.

“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,” they said.

The lawmakers noted that Wednesday’s announcement advances a process established via legislation they co‑sponsored in their respective councils, which directed the executive and mayor to deliver a plan on “next steps” for KCRHA in August. They said they look forward to reviewing those plans “in detail and working through them” with colleagues at both the city and county levels.

“This transition should strengthen accountability, provide greater stability for providers, preserve regional coordination, and improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness,” their statement concluded.

Looking ahead: Broader regional conversation and long-term investments

Zahilay and Wilson both framed the compliance and stabilization plan as only one piece of a larger effort to address homelessness and as the start of a wider regional conversation.

“That conversation can’t happen at City Hall or King County’s Chinook Building alone. It must include our 39 cities, our state and federal partners, service providers, labor, philanthropy, businesses, people with lived experience, and communities across the region,” Zahilay said.

The plan dovetails with the executive’s “Breaking the Cycle” initiative, which focuses on the intersections of homelessness, substance use disorder, and the criminal legal system, and with Wilson’s shelter acceleration work, including new shelter capacity like the recently opened Interbay site.

Both leaders pointed to housing production goals including a target of 500 net new units in 500 days, as well as 80 new tiny homes in the Central District and the exploration of a countywide housing levy as examples of the broader strategy to pair system governance reforms with long-term investments.

Wilson acknowledged the region is in a “really challenging moment” given rising unsheltered homelessness, but said she is “filled with a lot of hope”, citing recent successes such as coordinated efforts in Pioneer Square that moved more than 70 long‑unsheltered people into shelter with services.

As the compliance team begins work inside KCRHA and planning ramps up for the 2027 transition of contracts, city and county officials, providers, and community members will now turn to the next phase — designing a homelessness response system that is more accountable, financially sound, and capable of delivering better outcomes for people across the region.

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