Why Dow Constantine Bears Responsibility for Our Region’s Homelessness Crisis

Recent headlines paint a troubling picture of King County’s regional homelessness system — one in turmoil, riddled with financial mismanagement, and lacks accountability to taxpayers.

• “$13M missing: Seattle leaders call attention to ‘egregious’ regional homeless audit“ — KOMO News, April 23, 2026
• “Councilmember Rivera, County Councilmember Dembowski call for KCRHA to be dissolved“ — Seattle Channel, April 23, 2026
• “Investigation uncovers $800k in payments to King County employee’s family members“ — Seattle Times, April 26, 2026
• “‘Damning’ audit finds lax King County oversight allowed potential fraud, improper payments to contractors“ — KUOW/NPR, August 25, 2025
• “Councilmember Dunn says he pushed audit for years before King County fraud revealed“ — KIRO NewsRadio, March 26, 2026
• “Homeless Authority CEO absent from most financial oversight meetings, millions in funds missing, audit shows” — Center Square, April 27, 2026

In the dozens of stories regarding the financial miscues revealed in the audits of the King County’s Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA), one key question is never discussed: Who is responsible for the worsening state of our region’s homelessness crisis?

There are many public officials who should take responsibility for the continuous rise in homelessness (increased 68% in past decade) despite the billions that have been annually spent. Yet there is one political figure who stands out for his lack of financial oversight and poor policy decisions that have caused the serious problems we face today – former King County Executive and current CEO of Sound Transit Dow Constantine.

The four-term county executive delivered many speeches regarding homelessness that were filled with well-crafted promises, which were never met. Such as the speech he gave February 17, 2022, to announce the formation of Partnership for Zero campaign (a KCRHA program that was shut down 18 months later due to poor results).

In the speech Constantine promised, “We are committed to the proposition that unsheltered homelessness is inhumane, unacceptable, and it must, and will be solved.”  He went on to say, “Our approach is rooted in compassion and equity, as well as determinization, and data will prove its effectiveness.”

Yet, his actions and decisions never remotely lived up to this rhetoric. In fact, the “data” he referenced showed that unsheltered homelessness rose 247% (from 2,827 in 2009 to 9,810 in 2025) during Constantine’s time in office.

Here are a few examples of Constantine’s expansive role in the region’s homelessness efforts:

• In November 2015, when the homelessness population (both sheltered and unsheltered) was 10,047, Executive Constantine stood with then Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to declare homelessness an emergency and assert that all levels of government should spend more money combating the problem.
• Constantine championed the creation of the KCRHA, appointed several members of its original governing committee, and was the chair of the board, which oversaw all the authority’s activities.
• In his role as county executive, he oversaw the King County Department of Community and Human Services (with $1.8 billion in annual grants to provide homeless services) and the King County Sheriff’s Office (responsible for enforcement of anti-camping laws in unincorporated King County and in several communities, which contract with the county for law enforcement).
• During the COVID pandemic, Executive Constantine authorized purchasing 15 hotels across the county with a total of 1,600 units to provide supportive and emergency housing. The total cost, including initial modifications, came to over $455 million, or $333,000 per unit. This does not include ongoing maintenance or staff costs. From the Housing for Health website, it is difficult to determine how many of these 15 former hotels are currently accepting residents.

In November 2024, ChangeWA conducted an exclusive interview with then Executive Constantine, which revealed two critical facts:

• Constantine could not provide a dollar amount for how much money he had authorized to be spent on homelessness at King County or KCRHA. He could not provide even an estimate for any year in the past decade.
• Constantine could not provide any short-term goals for the KCRHA to achieve to justify taxpayers continuing to fund the controversial agency.

Constantine’s lax accounting and his absence of a clear vision appear to have doomed KCRHA from the start. Twice, it conducted nationwide searches to find qualified candidates to lead its efforts, and twice it had to settle for an appointment (Marc Dones in 2021 and Kelly Dennison in 2024) because qualified candidates dropped out of the interview process.

In the ten years following his emergency declaration, Constantine led the county’s DHCS while creating and leading the new regional homelessness authority. In that time, homeless numbers grew 68% to 16,868, and despite Seattle being the 18^th largest U.S. city by residents, it has the fourth largest homeless population in the country (just behind New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, which each have millions more inhabitants). And Washington state has America’s largest population of “chronically homeless” (those who refuse any help) in the country.

The $333,000+ per unit Constantine spent to buy hotel rooms to warehouse homeless people, many of whom are still active in their addictions, is equivalent to buying 1,600 homeless individuals a free one-bedroom condominium. No wonder our state has become a magnet for North America’s drug addicts and homeless people.

When hundreds of thousands of needles and buckets of foil squares (used to cook drugs) were regularly found at homeless encampments, Executive Constantine ignored this compelling evidence to say “it is wrong” to acknowledge that addiction is a major factor causing homelessness. Constatine also ignored the largest survey of homeless individuals, conducted by University of California San Francisco in 2023, that found that more than 2/3 of homeless respondents admitted to regular drug use.

Ignoring the strong evidence on the connection between drug/alcohol addiction and homelessness prevented our ability to attack the root cause of homelessness. Many experts have concluded that more treatment is needed if we want to reduce the homeless population count.

Despite his poor accounting methods and a disappointing record on homelessness, Constantine has become very wealthy as a public servant. Shortly after his ChangeWA interview in early 2025, he resigned from his job as King County Executive to become Sound Transit’s CEO. This includes a pay package that will add $6 million to Constantine’s bank account. While Sound Transit is struggling under its own financial crisis, its board, primarily consisting of local politicians appointed by Constantine, appeared to be unconcerned with Constantine’s lackluster fiscal management history and lack of results.

While it is frustrating to see Constantine prosper while thousands more suffer on our streets, it is doubtful history will be kind to the career politician. As he said in his 2022 speech, if  “data will prove (his) effectiveness,” then the large increase in both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness and the many critical audits will be the “data” for which he will be judged.

Because Constantine’s ineffective views are no longer relevant and councilmembers are calling for KCRHA to be closed, there is a belief that significant improvements could soon take place in how King County tackles homelessness. But this will only occur if more treatment options are provided and success is no longer measured by money spent, but by the number of people who rise from homelessness to lead independent lives.