Dismantle KCRHA, then install accountability & recovery in fight against homelessness

Findings from the recent audit of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) have led to more calls to dismantle the controversial agency. These rare demands are due to the authority’s history of fiscal mismanagement and the never-ending increases to the homeless population in King County (risen 68% in the past 10 years and 43.5% since KCRHA was formed in early 2020).

Tuesday, King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski introduced legislation that would begin the 90-day process for it to be dissolved, and similar legislation on the Seattle side, from Councilmember Maritza Rivera is reportedly in the works.

ChangeWA has been among the many who have previously called for KCRHA to be dissolved. Today, because of not only the KCRHA audit, but also the recent audit of King County’s Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS), ChangeWA proposes a complete makeover of the region’s entire homelessness strategy. Bringing accountability to homelessness spending is only part of the solution. We must also replace the failed “Housing First” strategy with a plan that focuses more attention on helping those with debilitating addiction and mental health issues.

But most of all, we need to change the definition of success on the homelessness issue. For too long, we have determined success by how much money is spent when we should be focused on how many people have returned to an independent life due to recovery. Instead of spending billions on housing (where many continue to live in their addiction), we should follow experts’ advice and invest more resources in providing recovery treatment so people can return to a productive life.

The recently completed audit of KCRHA found more than $8 million unaccounted for and unauthorized spending of an additional $4.26 million. This follows a 2024 report by the Discovery Institute, which found that of the 19 groups receiving more than a million dollars from KCRHA in 2022, ten failed to provide the required paperwork stating what they did with the taxpayers’ money and how many people they have helped.

Those who have read ChangeWA’s December 2024 interview with then King County Executive Dow Constantine, are likely not surprised that so many problems have been found within both KCRHA and DCHS accounting systems, Constantine was asked to provide figures on the annual amounts of money he had authorized be spent on homelessness since he declared it an emergency in 2015. The four-term executive was unable to provide a figure – not even an estimate.

Analysis from communications executive and former president of 5G Americas Viet Q. Nguyen found that $534 million poured through KCRHA over its short existence, even after repeated audits found serious problems with the authority’s accounting methods.

The KCRHA Governance Committee met Friday, April 25 to determine their next course of action after the public release of the audit. KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison defended the actions of her team, which includes dozens of employees who receive more than a $100,000 annual salary, golden benefits, and unlimited vacations. Yet a former employee testified at the meeting that serious accounting problems were ignored by CEO Kinnison and other high-ranking KCRHA officials. There have since been media reports that Kinnison missed most of the twice-weekly oversight meetings that were designed to keep KCRHA leadership appraised of audit issues.

The Governing Committee adopted a few minor improvements, such as forming a finance committee and hiring a Chief Financial Officer. With these small improvements It will be interesting to see if other elected officials will join those who have called for KCRHA’s closure.

Here is where your voice is needed. We hope you will join ChangeWa in calling for:

• Dissolving the dysfunctional King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
• Improve accountability by installing best practices in its dispersal of taxpayer funds and bringing ethics training back to the county and KCRHA.
• Listening to experts’ advice and place more funds into addiction and mental health treatment and stop funding ineffective housing first programs.

This is a critical time for your councilmembers on both the Seattle City Council and King County Council to hear from you. You can look up and email your councilmember(s) at the links below:

Contact your Seattle City Councilmembers

Contact your King County Councilmember

It is up to the citizens to demand more accountability and better results from our government.