Over the past several weeks, the transition of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) has moved from planning into implementation.
In July, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced plans to stabilize, right size, and reset KCRHA, including transitioning administration of locally funded homelessness service contracts back to King County and the City of Seattle. Since then, KCRHA, King County, and Seattle have been working through the operational details of that transition while continuing the financial stabilization work already underway at KCRHA.
There is still substantial work ahead, and while some elements of KCRHA’s future structure remain under development, the direction is becoming clearer. KCRHA will be a smaller, more focused organization centered on federal Continuum of Care (CoC) responsibilities and the shared regional infrastructure that supports the homelessness response system across King County.
Moving forward, our priority remains supporting continuity of services for people experiencing homelessness and the providers who serve them.
Transitioning Local Contracts
One of the largest pieces of the transition is moving the administration of approximately $150M locally funded annual homelessness service contracts back to Seattle and King County.
KCRHA teams are working closely with both jurisdictions to support the transfer of contract files and institutional knowledge necessary for a responsible transition. Seattle and King County are also building the internal staffing and infrastructure needed to resume this work.
For service providers and people receiving services, the goal is continuity. This transition changes who will administer these contracts; it does not change the housing, outreach, behavioral health, and other services they support.
The transition also provides an opportunity to more clearly align responsibility for local investments with the jurisdictions that fund and oversee them, while KCRHA maintains the regional infrastructure necessary for those investments to operate as part of a connected homelessness response system.
Homelessness does not stop at city boundaries, and neither does the infrastructure needed to respond to it. KCRHA’s regional responsibilities — including CoC leadership, the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and shared data infrastructure, Coordinated Entry (CE), regional planning and data, Point-in-Time Count (PIT), Housing Inventory Count (HIC), and severe weather coordination — continue to operate across jurisdictional boundaries.
Consistent with KCRHA’s move away from administering locally funded service contracts, KCRHA is also concluding interlocal agreements with the North King County cities of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell, and Woodinville, and with Bellevue and Redmond on the Eastside.
These agreements were developed when the agency was expected to play a larger role in administering local homelessness investments. As local contract administration returns to individual jurisdictions, maintaining these separate local contracting arrangements no longer fits the direction of the regional system. Importantly, concluding these contracting arrangements does not end KCRHA’s regional relationship with these communities.
The transition reflects an important distinction that has become increasingly clear through this work: regional coordination does not require KCRHA to administer every local homelessness contract. Local governments can manage their own investments while continuing to participate in and benefit from shared regional systems.
Becoming a Smaller, More Focused Organization
Moving local contract administration back to Seattle and King County substantially changes KCRHA’s future operating footprint. KCRHA has begun reducing and restructuring staffing to align the organization with that smaller future role.
These are difficult changes for an organization and for the employees affected by them. We are sequencing this work carefully around the operational needs of the transition, including preserving the knowledge and capacity necessary to support providers and contract transfers while meeting federal requirements and maintaining essential regional functions.
This work will continue through the remainder of 2026 as local contract administration transitions, and the future regional model becomes more clearly defined.
Continuing Financial Stabilization
Financial stabilization work is continuing alongside the organizational transition. KCRHA has reached the 90-day milestone in its Corrective Action Plan, with strengthened financial controls and practices continuing through implementation. Turning Point Strategic Advisors is now working directly with KCRHA’s Finance department to complete the reconciliation of historical financial records while continuing to strengthen the recurring financial management practices appropriate to KCRHA’s future operating structure.
Defining KCRHA’s Continuing Regional Role
As local contracting responsibilities transition, KCRHA is working with Seattle, King County, service providers, and other regional partners to define the functions the region will continue to need from KCRHA.
KCRHA will continue to serve as the region’s CoC lead, supporting the federal funding, planning, and governance responsibilities associated with federal homelessness funding in King County. KCRHA will also continue to support HUD CoC regional infrastructure including HMIS, Coordinated Entry, Point-in-Time and Housing Inventory Counts, regional data and system analysis, as well as countywide severe weather coordination.
Other regional functions are being considered as part of the broader reset, including provider coordination and support, system planning and performance, the Office of the Ombuds, and the infrastructure necessary to support regional governance and accountability.
The common thread is that these are functions that cannot be effectively understood or operated solely within individual jurisdictional boundaries.
A person experiencing homelessness may move between Seattle, South King County, the Eastside, and North King County. Service providers frequently operate programs supported by multiple funders. Federal funding is organized regionally. Coordinated Entry, System Performance, and HMIS require shared systems. Severe weather crosses city boundaries. And understanding whether the homelessness response system is working requires a common regional picture of need, capacity, performance, and outcomes.
The transition is highlighting that local governments can administer their own investments while the region continues to share the infrastructure necessary for those investments to operate as a connected homelessness response system. That is the role KCRHA is increasingly being structured to support.
The Work Ahead
KCRHA, Seattle, King County, and regional partners will continue working through decisions about the long-term structure of the regional homelessness response. The work of the past several weeks has brought greater clarity to what comes next: a smaller and more focused KCRHA and continued shared infrastructure that allows the homelessness response across King County to remain connected.
Throughout this transition, our priorities remain continuity for people receiving services, stability for providers, responsible stewardship of public resources, and preserving the regional capabilities that communities across King County continue to need.
We will continue providing updates as this work progresses.
