(The Center Square) – The proposed interlocal agreement between the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and Seattle and King County is up for a final vote by the Seattle City Council.
The Seattle Housing and Human Services Committee held its first discussion on the proposed interlocal agreement with the KCRHA on Wednesday. The agreement was unanimously approved by the committee after a short discussion due to scheduling issues.
The proposed interlocal agreement would create a single governing board within KCRHA that is responsible for providing fiscal oversight, setting strategic policy direction, monitoring performance, and ensuring the agency is making progress to fulfill its mission. This was deemed necessary by many Seattle and King County officials who considered the current governmental structure of KCRHA to be flawed.
KCRHA currently has three separate boards that have oversight authority: the governing committee, the implementation board, and the Seattle King County Continuum of Care Board, which is in charge of applying for federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for homelessness assistance.
During the committee meeting, Seattle City Councilmember and KCRHA Governing Committee Member Cathy Moore said the revised interlocal agreements is “a sorely needed reset of KCRHA to create accountability and achieve measurable results.”
Seattle and King County are the only two parties in the proposed Interlocal Agreement. In 2023, five north King County cities created their own interlocal agreement to KCRHA and provided the agency $250,000 to administer some homelessness services on their behalf.
The majority of the agency’s funding comes from a partnership between both Seattle and King County, with Seattle providing 42%, or $104.67 million, to the agency’s 2024 budget.
Due to the complexities with the agreement being between King County, Seattle, and the Sound Cities Association, the Seattle Housing and Human Services Committee may have to vote on the proposed interlocal agreement again if King County or the King County Regional Policy Committee approve of any amendments.
However, Moore noted that she attended the most recent Regional Policy Committee meeting and said the only amendments that could be considered were minor technical changes to the agreement.
If the Seattle Housing and Human Services Committee had not approved the agreement on Wednesday, the agreement would have to wait for another vote sometime in December due to the city council preparing for upcoming budget discussions.
The other risk of not approving the agreement sooner rather than later is that the current interlocal agreement could be automatically renewed.
“[The interlocal agreement’s] current format is highly, highly problematic and, in fact if it does renew, I can just say on the record here that I’m not sure I would continue funding,” Moore said in the committee meeting.
The full Seattle City Council will vote on the interlocal agreement on Sept. 17.
The King County Council may take final action on the proposed interlocal agreement by Oct. 15.
