Zahilay at this week’s announcement of the restructuring plan (Image: King County)
King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson are pursuing a restructuring of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority that will significantly alter the organization, shifting it from a massive operations hub into an administrative and planning agency.
“KCRHA was created because homelessness is a regional challenge, and I continue to believe a regional response is the right approach,” Zahilay said in a statement. “But believing in a regional response also means making sure it works. Zahilay and Wilson said their plan is about about “stabilizing KCRHA, right sizing its focus on the work it is best positioned to lead, and resetting the future vision of our system.”
The overhaul plan comes after a troubling April 2026 forensic audit found massive deficiencies in the authority’s financial management, internal controls, and oversight. While KCRHA says it can account for and cover a portion of $4.26 million of “administrative overspend” identified in the audit, officials there say they disagree with findings that identified another $8 million in poorly tracked spending.
CHS reported here on Zahilay and Wilson’s plan to embed an independent financial analyst and services team into KCRHA to help better guide the organization.
The full plan will build on that embedded team with plans to rip out service contract management responsibilities from KCRHA, narrowing the authority’s focus to core administrative tasks like the Point in Time Count, severe weather coordination, and the Coordinated Entry System while also freeing the organization to more efficiently and, hopefully, effectively, pursue federal funding.
By stripping away contract administration, KCRHA is being “right-sized” to mimic more successful programs across the country like those in Houston or New York City.
The responsibility to manage contracts with service providers will return to city and county departments. Under the overhaul effort, a comprehensive Contracts Transfer Plan will be submitted to city and county councils by August 1st with a goal of officially shifting service contracts back to local government departments by January 2027.
The Zahilay and Wilson administrations are calling their plan a “regional reset.” As part of the effort, Zahilay has convened “a cross-sector Breaking the Cycle Workgroup” to develop “policy recommendations to improve outcomes and coordination in the homelessness, addiction, behavioral health, and incarceration continuum.” A report from the group is due in November.
The city and county will also hold “Regional Reset Conversations” with” jurisdictions, service providers, labor and business, philanthropic partners, and people with lived experience” to make recommendations on the future of the authority “by the first quarter of 2027.”
The KCHRA’s budget was proposed as $205 million in 2026 with about 60% coming from Seattle and the rest from the county and state and federal pass-through grants.
The authority was formed as officials pledged the new effort would consolidate efforts to address the homelessness crisis at a broader, more regional level. At one point growing to a $250 million a year effort, KCRHA was officially established in late 2019 through an Interlocal Agreement between the county and the City of Seattle under then-Mayor Jenny Durkan and then-King County Executive Dow Constantine.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority is currently led by Kelly Kinnison who has served as its Chief Executive Officer since 2024.
The overhaul plan has immediate next steps with some changes requiring approval by the King County Council and the Seattle City Council.
The embedded independent financial monitoring firm will begin its work with KCRHA this month. The administrations are now on the hook to submit a comprehensive Contracts Transfer Plan to both the King County Council and the Seattle City Council, detailing how service contracts will be moved out of the authority by August 1st. Also in August, the city, county, and KCRHA will jointly submit an application for the HUD federal funding notice.
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