King County councilmembers will review the organization’s financial policies before deciding whether to dissolve it.
SEATTLE — Three King County leaders announced plans Tuesday to work together to address the financial future of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA), following a forensic audit of the organization that revealed $13 million in missing funds.
King County councilmembers Rod Dembowski, Jorge L. Barón and Steffanie Fain released a joint statement saying that they will work with King County Executive Girmay Zahilay to assess the organization’s financial condition and determine next steps.
The County council will take up a motion to dissolve the organization in August once the assessment is complete, the coalition wrote in a statement. Dembowski and Reagan Dunn co-sponsored the motion to dissolve KCRHA Tuesday.
“We know from this forensic evaluation that KCRHA is deeply troubled in its financial management practices, and we also recognize the uncertainty this creates for providers and partners working every day to deliver critical services. We want to be clear: our goal is to ensure stability and continuity for those providers and the people they serve as we work through next steps,” wrote the council coalition in a statement. “We need to take time to assess the issues, risks, and impacts of any changes to KCRHA and make an informed decision about the future of the organization. We must be responsible for our taxpayer dollars, but we must also be responsible for the people of King County who rely on these programs.”
The audit, commissioned by the City of Seattle and King County through a third party, dug into about four years of KCRHA’s budget between mid-2021 and July 2025. About $13 million was missing from the books: $8 million in receivables, $4.26 million in administrative overspend and $1.26 million in the King County investment pool interest.
In addition to the missing funding, the audit also revealed the organization’s ongoing negative cash balance, dating back to December 2023, including up to about $44.7 million in July 2025, as well as a dysfunctional recordkeeping system. Auditors identified delays in invoicing that extended over a year, a lack of detailed records, and improperly tracked cash infusions from the city of Seattle.
Financial policies were also muddy. KCRHA had no internal guardrails around the use of purchase cards for incidental expenses — auditor Brian Nurse noted $36,700 worth of MasterCard gift cards with no documented receipts.
KCRHA leadership maintained in a response released April 23 that the evaluation did not find evidence of fraud or misuse of funding – rather, that it identified procedural financial tracking issues that the organization has since made progress on.
In the last 18 months, invoicing at KCRHA is now more timely and accurate, new monthly financial close processes have been implemented, and the organization has strengthened its oversight of spending, including purchase cards, the organization wrote in a statement.
The organization also clarified that the gift cards were distributed to homeless or unhoused people who responded to the Point-In-Time Count, an annual daylong survey that aims to establish a rough population estimate of the number of people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity in a region.
KCRHA CEO Dr. Kelly Kinnison said she requested the forensic audit when she joined the organization in 2024.
“KCRHA’s early financial systems had significant gaps and still need improvement,” said Kinnison. “The [evaluation] did not find evidence of fraud or misuse of funds, but it does make clear that we have work to do — and we are already moving quickly to continue to strengthen controls, improve accountability, and ensure this organization operates at the highest standard.”
The statement also noted the ramifications of the organization’s funding model and strategy, to which it attributed some of its financial challenges.
The organization has until May 23 to develop a plan to address overspending, improve its accounting records and reconcile financial inconsistencies. Services provided by the organization will continue uninterrupted.
Civic leaders around King County have called for change at KCRHA since the audit was released in early April.
At the county level, Zahilay, Dembowski, Barón, Fain and King County councilmember Reagan Dunn have expressed concern for KCRHA’s financial handling and issued calls to overhaul the organization or dissolve it completely.
In Seattle, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and city councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck (Pos. 8), Dionne Foster (Pos. 9), Maritza Rivera (District 4) and Bob Kettle (District 7) all spoke out about the organization’s financial failures. Kettle and Rivera have also called for the dissolution of KCRHA.
“Addressing homelessness is my highest priority, and I have serious concerns about KCRHA’s management of city funds,” said Wilson. “We need to take swift action to protect public dollars. All options are on the table.”
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