Our draft 5-Year Action Plan is our community’s path forward for measurable, accountable success in dramatically reducing homelessness. It is an evidence-based course of action for policymakers, a shared roadmap for advocates and service providers, a tool to hold our response system accountable, and a signal that progress is possible.
Collective action is the path to solving complex problems, and this plan is the embodiment of our region’s decision to dramatically reduce homelessness.
Fragmentation of the homeless crisis response system has been one of King County’s most persistent barriers to achieving meaningful progress in reducing homelessness. For this reason, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority was designed and formed to unify and coordinate the funding, policies and programs of 39 cities and King County into a single, efficient, successful system.
Our mission is to significantly decrease homelessness throughout King County, using equity and social justice principles.
To get there, we will center people with lived experience of homelessness, work alongside King County’s network of service providers, advocates, elected and community leaders, and engage the constellation of intersecting systems that are critical to success—including permanent housing, health care, child welfare, education and employment.
This is a fundamentally new way of working, and making the change is no easy task. Our Five Year plan offers a foundational tool to support us all in moving forward together.
This is a community challenge, and it requires the whole of our communities to solve it.
Your thoughts, experience and feedback matter to us.
The draft plan was created through 38 workshops that engaged over 400 people during the summer of 2022, followed by additional engagements to ensure the input of specific groups such as people with high-acuity needs, people with disabilities, Black and Native/Indigenous communities, immigrant and refugee communities, LGBTQIA2S+ communities, youth and young adults, families with children, vehicle residents, survivors of gender-based violence, veterans, and seniors.
These community engagement sessions, and additional feedback sessions with city partners, advocates, and service providers, were instrumental in forming and refining the goals and initiatives in this action plan.
We invite you to review and comment on the draft 5 Year Plan (closed).
- Review the Executive Summary
- Review the full text of the 5 Year Plan
- Take our survey – open for 3 weeks of public comment, please provide your feedback by February 8
Comments and feedback will be collected and shared with our Implementation Board and Governing Committee. Thank you for your partnership.
Updated March 1, 2023: Next Steps
Drawing on feedback from 640 survey responses, community “Lunch and Learn” opportunities, and direct emails, KCRHA staff are preparing a recommendation memo to our leadership and boards on potential revisions to the draft Five Year Plan.
A subcommittee of the Implementation Board called the System Planning Subcommittee will be the primary vehicle for carrying out an approval process around revisions to the Five Year Plan. By establishing a formal subcommittee, all meetings will be noticed and will be able to be viewed by the public. Participation in the subcommittee is open to all Implementation Board members, modeled on the King County Council “Committee of the Whole” structure.
The subcommittee, along with KCRHA’s CEO and leadership team, will review recommendations on revisions to Five Year Plan and prepare an updated version of a Revised Five Year Plan for the full Implementation Board to review during their April 20th Meeting.
