Is It Time to Admit the King County Regional Homelessness Authority Is a Bust?

Jun 23, 2025

The hosts tackle the troubling financial woes of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, facing major budget cuts and potential job losses. They question the agency's current role and effectiveness, especially after the departure of its founding leader. Internal turmoil, from low staff morale to governance issues, is laid bare. The thought-provoking discussion probes whether this organization merely shields local politicians from scrutiny about their homelessness policies, raising urgent questions about its future.

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INSIGHT

KCRHA Lost Its Original Mission

King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) was designed as an independent regional agency but now acts mainly as a check-writing entity.
Its original mission to unify and strategize services regionally has been largely lost due to political and operational issues.

INSIGHT

Budget Cuts Threaten KCRHA Survival

KCRHA faces up to a 21% administrative budget cut and staff layoffs amid budget shortfalls.
These financial pressures expose foundational questions about the agency's purpose and viability.

INSIGHT

Structural Flaws Waste KCRHA Funding

KCRHA operates on a reimbursement model without independent funding and must take out loans to pay contractors on time.
This costly structure wastes money on interest payments that could otherwise fund services.

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The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) launched in 2020 with great fanfare. But now, with up to to a fifth of its staff facing layoffs due to budget shortfalls, it may be facing a slow death by a thousand cuts.

In this week’s episode, with David still gallivanting in parts unknown, Erica and Sandeep take a hard look at the current state of KCRHA, and ask a pointed question: What purpose, exactly, does this diminished and largely neutered agency serve?

As Erica reported on PubliCola this week, KCRHA's budget proposal could lead to a 21 percent cut to its administrative budget (resulting in 22 job cuts) along with an across-the-board cut to homelessness services. KCRHA clearly hopes to persuade the city to increase its funding to stave off those cuts, though the initial response from city officials has been noncommittal at best.

Budgetary wrangling aside, this back-and-forth is exposing the agency’s flaws, including its clunky (and costly) reimbursement procedures, internal morale issues and power struggles, and the KCRHA's lack of independent taxing authority, which leaves the authority dependent on the largesse of elected officials at the city and county. With the city clawing back control of outreach and homelessness prevention efforts—and the agency no longer even pretending to operate independently—we discuss whether the only function KCRHA provides is to insulate local politicians from public scrutiny of their decisions on homelessness policy, strategy, and funding.

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

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