King County Regional Homelessness Authority gets ready to face the public as audit fallout intensifies

The governing board of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) is set to meet publicly as it faces mounting fallout from a scathing audit, while some local leaders say reform isn’t enough and are pushing to dissolve the agency altogether.

The board is scheduled to convene to respond to findings that revealed $13 million in unaccounted funds and widespread financial mismanagement. The agenda includes public comment and discussion of potential next steps, including forming a finance committee to improve oversight.

But even before that process begins, some officials are calling for a more drastic solution.

Rod Dembowski and Maritza Rivera are drafting separate pieces of legislation to dismantle the agency entirely, arguing that the problems outlined in the audit point to systemic failures.

“They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Dembowski explained at a press conference with Rivera inside City Hall Thursday. “And the King County Regional Homelessness Authority was set up six years ago with the best of intentions, but the tool that was set up has been given more chances than it deserves at this point, and it has failed again and again and again.”

KCRHA failed to track spending

According to the audit, the authority failed to properly track spending across dozens of accounts, including 84 that were not labeled. Investigators also found the agency did not consistently monitor cash advances and, at times, failed to use financial software designed to flag overspending. The agency is now facing a reported $45 million deficit.

The missing $13 million has fueled frustration among taxpayers and raised ongoing questions about accountability. Officials said assigning responsibility is difficult due to incomplete records and gaps in financial controls.

“We still need to do the work,” Rivera said. “We still need to take a regional approach, but there have just been too many issues with KCRA.”

Dembowski said publicly that determining who is responsible for the missing funds is complicated by the agency’s lack of documentation.

“The state of the record keeping is apparently so bad that they, while they didn’t find fraud, they couldn’t assure us that there wasn’t any fraud,” Dembowski said.

While the board is expected to discuss internal reforms, including possibly creating a finance committee, critics say those steps fall short and that the agency itself may need to be replaced.

The outcome of the meeting could shape the future of how homelessness services are managed across Seattle and King County.

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