Homelessness authority cites steps to improve accounting, calls for help

Leaders of King County Regional Homelessness Authority outlined steps to improve financial oversight in the wake of a blistering audit, but the agency's leaders said city and county aid will be needed for the authority to succeed.

A 157-page corrective action plan released by the authority late Friday detailed more rigorous accounting systems, new approval processes for employee reimbursements and regular work sessions with city and county officials. Still, CEO Kelly Kinnison argued core issues identified stem from the authority's original structure. She made the case for a third party, such as a consulting firm, to get the agency onto a sustainable path.

"KCRHA owns its internal failures; the region must jointly fix the shared operating model," Kinnison said in the report's opening.

Last month's forensic evaluation sparked widespread concern about the authority's ability to steward more than $200 million in public funds for the region's homelessness response. The audit, which covered a four-year period ending in July 2025, revealed a roughly $4 million administrative operating deficit, about $6 million in overspend on its budget and insufficient documentation for another $8 million.

While it found no evidence of fraud, it showed the authority had few controls in place to prevent misuse of funds.

The week the audit came out, public calls to dismantle the authority nearly reached a chorus.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, who both sit on the authority's governing board, sent a letter requesting the authority demonstrate how it will improve its oversight of funds by May 23 in a corrective action plan.

Wilson and Zahilay declined to comment Friday before deadline, saying they hadn't had sufficient time to review the plan.

In the plan, the homeless authority identified work that had already taken place to tighten controls on employee reimbursements and use of gift cards, now requiring preapproval and supporting documentation. The agency also deactivated five out of seven purchase cards, leaving two only for essential operations.

The plan cited steps the authority would take to identify the accounting records to match the $8 million for which the audit struggled to find the paper trail.

But the agency also attributed much of the discrepancies identified in the forensic evaluation to its reimbursement model, which has been part of the agency's structuring since it came into being. The authority pays homeless service nonprofits before receiving reimbursement from funders such as the city of Seattle and King County.

While the authority acknowledged that its own internal processes have contributed to delays in reimbursements, it also said the model makes it vulnerable to negative cash balances and interest. That can contribute to overspending on the administrative budget, among other issues.

Since the regional homelessness authority began six years ago, it has experienced almost nonstop turbulence, cycling through five different CEOs, weathering outrage over contracting delays and struggling to deliver on its own pandemic-era efforts to get people off the streets and into shelter. But last month's audit triggered the most forceful questions about the authority's future to date.

In the weeks since the audit came out, though, jointly filed resolutions in the Seattle and King County councils to immediately trigger the dismantling process have stalled. Instead, both councils have advanced measures calling on the mayor and executive to develop plans in the next several weeks to assess the feasibility of continuing the authority, restructuring it or getting rid of it entirely.

The mayor and executive have until Aug. 1 to recommend which option they want the city and county to choose, according to the resolutions from the Seattle and King County councils.

In Friday's governing board meeting, the second since the audit's release, the mayor and executive stressed the importance of greater oversight for taxpayer dollars. But they also cautioned against drastic measures that would disrupt services to people living outside or threaten the region's access to federal funds.

"I just want to reiterate to the public that accountability work and the work of delivering services to people go hand in hand," Zahilay said.

Mike Nurse with Bellevue accounting firm Clark Nuber, which led the forensic evaluation, told the governing board last month it could take a year to turn the authority into a financially sound institution, with possible service disruptions along the way. That could also cost several million dollars in consultant fees, he said.

But homeless service nonprofits, including those that would like to see the end of the authority, have warned of the negative consequences that could come with a hasty wind-down process.

The regional homelessness authority never assumed all of the homelessness response efforts from King County and Seattle but it has consolidated contracts for a dozen different types of key services, including shelter, outreach and severe weather response.

It also acts as the point of contact for the federal funding the region is allocated to address its homelessness crisis. That role is particularly important now. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is set to announce the next round of federal funding for homelessness services with new criteria prioritizing housing programs that require people to get sober or check into mental health treatment.

The regional homelessness authority has been leading plans to determine how Seattle and King County can retain the roughly $65 million in funding it typically receives through the federal process. Much of it has supported programs that focus on getting homeless people into housing with services but no prerequisites.

In the corrective action plan, the authority argued issues are solvable and, with help, the authority could move into a new, more stable era.

"The region does not face only two choices: defend the status quo or dismantle the regional homelessness response infrastructure," the authority said.

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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 11:41 PM.