Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and King County's top executive have announced a plan to significantly scale back the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, arguing that the agency created to coordinate the region's response has not delivered the results it promised.
The move comes as homelessness in the region continues to climb. According to the latest count, more than eighteen thousand people are experiencing homelessness across King County. Overall homelessness rose about nine percent between 2024 and 2026, while the number of people who are unsheltered jumped by roughly twenty-one percent.
Officials described the rise in unsheltered homelessness in particular as unacceptable, and said the sharp increase demands a new sense of urgency. Wilson framed the decision to pull back the authority as a way of putting political accountability back where it belongs, with the elected leaders of the city and the county.
At stake in the region's efforts is roughly sixty-seven million dollars in federal continuum of care funding used to fight homelessness. How that money is managed, and by whom, is part of what leaders say they are trying to sort out through the restructuring.
The authority's chief executive, Dr. Kelly Kinison, acknowledged that the agency has not met expectations. But she cautioned that eliminating it outright is not the answer, urging leaders to fix and rethink the model rather than scrap it entirely.
Not everyone agrees on how far to go. Councilmember Reagan Dunn called the authority a failed experiment and said he wants it completely dissolved. For now, most city and county leaders appear to favor dialing the agency back rather than shutting it down, though sharp differences remain over the path forward.
The mayor and the executive are expected to present a specific proposal to scale back the authority in August, and council members from each body will have to approve it. Leaders acknowledge major challenges ahead, since shrinking the agency would require county departments to take on more of the work, adding staffing, funding and logistical questions to an issue that has long defied easy solutions.