(The Center Square) – Despite homelessness being at an all-time high, The King County Regional Homelessness Authority will be tasked with addressing the crisis with less federal and state money in 2025.
In 2025, King County Regional Homelessness Authority – better known as KCRHA – is being dedicated $206.87 million in funding from a collective of Seattle, King County, a few north King County cities, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Washington state Department of Commerce.
The majority of funding – 47% – will go to the construction and operations of enhanced shelters to provide temporary housing to unhoused people.
The $206.87 million is 20% less than the $249.1 million KCRHA was budgeted this year.
This marks the second year in a row KCRHA was budgeted for less money. In 2023, the agency was allocated $253.3 million.
KCRHA Communications Director Lisa Edge told The Center Square that the decrease in funding is primarily due to specific changes in the federal and state funding sources.
The Washington state Department of Commerce’s funding for the State Encampment Resolution Program – formerly called Right of Way – decreased due to the conclusion of funding allocated for a temporary shelter and associated outreach and engagement programs.
Funding for the program decreased 26.3% from $28.5 million to approximately $21 million in 2025. Notably, the program saw a success rate of 89% for acceptance of housing and shelter of homeless people living on state right of ways in 2023.
HUD’s Continuum of Care program decreased its allocation to KCRHA by 66% from $68 million to $23 million in 2025. The reduction in HUD funding from 2024 to 2025 is linked to its Continuum of Care Permanent Supportive Housing funding.
“These funds were initially included in our 2024 budget but did not transfer to KCRHA as planned,” Edge explained to The Center Square in an email. “We anticipate that these contracts will transition to KCRHA in 2025, at which point they will be incorporated into our budget following the completion of the transfer.”
KCRHA’s funding from local sources will increase in 2025. For instance, Seattle is funding KCRHA with $109.4 million next year. That is a 4.5% increase from $104.67 million in 2024. The city is KCRHA’s major contributor, with funding making up 53% of the agency’s budget.
King County increased its funding to the agency from $42.3 million to $53 million in 2025.
Even a coalition of northern King County cities boosted funding to KCRHA by 61% from $249,317 in 2024 to $402,525 in 2025.
KCRHA has served as the organization responsible for coordinating funding and services for unhoused people across all of King County since 2019.
Homelessness was declared an emergency by Seattle and King County in 2015 when the county’s federally mandated Point-in-Time Count tallied 10,047 homeless people across the county.
That has increased 63% to an all-time high of 16,385 unhoused people this year.
This is not an issue exclusive to King County. Between 2023 and 2024, Washington reported a 56% increase in the number of homeless people throughout the state.
HUD recently revealed that the number of homeless people on a single night in 2024 was the highest ever recorded with a total of 771,480 people.