Next month, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority will forge a new path toward addressing one of our region’s most protracted crises.

Kelly Kinnison, a division director of the US Department of Health and Human Services, will begin her tenure as the authority’s second permanent CEO. Dr. Kennison follows not only the Regional Authority’s first permanent CEO, Marc Dones, who stepped down last May but also two interim CEOs (including former United Way of King County chief operations officer) and its current acting director.

She also enters the job as the five-year Interlocal Agreement for establishing the Regional Homelessness Authority is nearing its December 31 expiration date.

But she also arrives amid renewed commitment from city and county governments to continue our regional approach as the best solution to solving the homelessness and housing insecurity issue. There is strong consensus among city and county governments to extend the Interlocal Agreement to at least two years and possibly five years.

The agreement will be amended, and the amendment process will likely occur between mid-August and be finished before the end of September.

We are anticipating with great hope the second long-term leader of the Regional Authority. And this moment is also seen by many as an opportunity to simplify the governance structure of the regional homelessness authority to strengthen the authority in terms of impact and achieve its mission.

As a member of the Regional Homelessness Authority’s Implementation Board and president and CEO of United Way, I am among many encouraged by the continued support across the sectors for the regional approach, and we are looking forward to the strong and courageous leadership of Dr. Kennison.

And we agree that there is a need to simplify and streamline the governance structure so that the Regional Authority has the direction, responsibility, oversight, and support—but not all the complexities and bureaucracies that have hampered it in the past.

The reasons behind the creation of the Regional Authority remain as pressing and relevant as they were before the authority was created. We have the benefit of nearly five years of operation of the Regional Authority and with the start of Dr. Kennison in August there is a necessity that as a collective that we lean into effectively addressing the crisis of homelessness and increase our progress toward having an effective regional homelessness crisis response, system and structure.

We are aware of the many headlines that point to how craggy the road has been. In addition to reports of instability at the Regional Authority’s leadership level, we see that the current HUD-sponsored Point-in-Time Count revealed a 23% increase in homelessness from 2022 when the last Point-in-Time was taken.

The reasons behind the creation of the Regional Authority remain as pressing and relevant as they were before the authority was created.

Gordon McHenry, Jr., United Way of King County president and CEO

Despite the optics that might lead some to believe no progress is being made by the Regional Authority, nothing could be further from the truth: Data from the federal Homeless Management Information System shows that 5,600 people locally moved from homelessness to being permanently housed during 2022 alone.

A collaborative effort between the Washington State Departments of Commerce and Transportation, the Washington State Patrol, and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority brought more than 300 people inside with a combination of temporary and permanent housing.

We at United Way have adopted a preventive approach to the problem, believing that we will never make progress in our homelessness crisis unless we stop the flow of people being pushed out onto the streets after losing their homes.

In May 2022, King County officials placed United Way in charge of the county’s federally supported emergency rental assistance program. In partnership with local governments, United Way processed more than $200 million in federal funding for rental assistance and eviction protection, dispersing funds for past-due rent and forward rent. Most recently, United Way launched the Our Neighbor Fund to address residents’ housing and food security issues.

Homelessness and housing instability exist in all areas of our region.  The City of Seattle, the King County government, and many of the other smaller municipalities in King County are very much in support of the regional approach. The big unknown is how we secure 100% of all the city’s engagement and active support.

We entered this work knowing that this long-term societal challenge takes time to address. We all made a commitment to focus and work on this from a regional perspective. Progress is being made. Now is the time for the public, private, and philanthropic sectors to renew our commitment with courage, conviction, and confidence.