Lawmakers call for dissolving King County homelessness agency following audit
King County's primary agency for tackling homelessness is on shaky political ground following a critical audit of its financial oversight.
At least two local lawmakers are calling for its dissolution while Mayor Katie Wilson said "all options are on the table" going forward.
The audit, commissioned by Seattle and King County, found the agency lacks the kind of internal controls and oversight over its budget that should be expected of such a large and significant governmental body, and lost track of at least $8 million in public funds.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority's essential weakness relates to its funding model, which depends heavily on retroactive reimbursements - an approach that leaves the body vulnerable to losing track of dollars and expenses, the audit found. Though the analysis did not find any examples of outright fraud, the accountability was not strong enough to guarantee that would not happen, it said.
Addressing homelessness is my highest priority, and I have serious concerns about KCRHA's management of city funds," Wilson said. "We need to take swift action to protect public dollars. All options are on the table."
Past audits have come to similar conclusions, though the recent analysis by the firm Clark Nuber - at a cost of $600,000 from Seattle - suggest the flagged issues not only persist but have grown.
Last July, the agency dipped more than $44 million into the red. Most of that was reimbursable by Seattle and King County, but it included a more than $4 million administrative operating deficit.
The audit, which was commissioned by the city last year, also struggled to find the paper trail on $8 million, saying it would likely need to be written off.
Two local lawmakers - Seattle Councilmember Maritza Rivera and King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski - are now calling for the agency to be dissolved.
"KCRHA has a history of dysfunction and inefficiency, and it is time to acknowledge that it has failed in its mission," Rivera said.
"It's now time for elected officials to bring this failed experiment to an end," Dembowski said.
Previous audits have warned the agency that its reliance on reimbursements puts its mission at risk. Staff have acknowledged the weaknesses in presentations to its board, which is made up of lawmakers from Seattle, King County and other suburban cities, as well as people who've experienced homelessness.
One former staff member, Xochitl Maykovich, filed a complaint against CEO Kelly Kinnison alleging, among other things, that she had not paid proper attention to the agency's fiscal health.
In an email to members of the body's governing board, Kinnison, who was hired in June 2024, wrote, "shortly after I joined KCRHA, it became clear that there were concerns related to our financial systems and reporting during the agency's early formation."
Some of the audit's findings were attributed to reporting issues and did not represent a misuse of funds, she said.
"The findings are concentrated in KCRHA's early formation period and reflect structural challenges associated with startup conditions, the pandemic response, an initially fragmented governance framework, and a highly complex funding model," Kinnison wrote in the email.
Invoice system delays reimbursements
Several factors exacerbated the cashflow issues, the audit found. Inefficient invoicing has led to delays in reimbursement. Administrative costs have ballooned. The agency has overspent its budget, including $6.4 million in 2025. Oversight is thin, meaning spending variances are slow to be found. And there's no system for tracking advanced funds.
The audit did not fault any one person or decision, "but rather the accumulation of several years of compounding and interrelated issues."
Addressing the issues will mean intense coordination and "significant time and cost investment," concluded the audit's executive summary.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority launched in 2021 and represented the most significant commitment by Seattle, King County and suburban cities to the idea that solving homelessness required a regional solution. Seattle began sending more than $100 million a year to the agency, rather than spending the money in house.
The notion, though, was always complicated. Not all the participating cities share the same philosophy about the best way to address homelessness, while Seattle quickly began to chafe at the extent of its obligations. While former Mayor Jenny Durkan was an enthusiastic supporter, her successor Bruce Harrell was far more skeptical.
Wilson has been more tight-lipped about her true feeling about the agency, but her plan to build 4,000 shelter units in Seattle bypasses it entirely.
The latest audit comes in the aftermath of a damning dissection of King County's human services contracts. An auditor raised significant questions about how the money was being spent and whether promised work was actually being completed.
Members of the Seattle City Council have called for more scrutiny of the city's human services contracts, including a call by Councilmember Maritza Rivera for an audit.
Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dionne Foster released a joint statement Wednesday: "Every misstep revealed in this audit represents another missed opportunity to prevent further trauma in our streets and neighborhoods across the region."
Rinck and Foster called for immediately instating stronger financial controls for the homelessness authority.
"Following that," they said, "we must bring our region together to determine the future of our regional homelessness system. Fundamentally, we have a duty to get people housed and do right by the taxpayers of Seattle and King County."
Councilmember Bob Kettle called the results of the audit "damning."
"It shows an epic, and consistent, failure of leadership at the top of the agency - especially at its start," he said. "It also reveals the failure of leadership of the county and city.
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This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 11:36 PM.