(The Center Square) – Exiting King County Executive Dow Constantine is doubling down on a housing-first approach to addressing the homelessness crisis in a recent interview with ChangeWA.
ChangeWA, a non-partisan organization, released an interview it had with Constantine on Wednesday. In the interview, Constantine showed continued support for the region’s continued housing-first approach, despite statistics showing no signs of improvements to the crisis.
In 2015 Constantine and then-Seattle Mayor Ed Murray declared homelessness an emergency facing the region. That year, 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.
Constantine said homelessness is at its core a housing issue and the region has not created enough general housing to keep pace with the growing need.
The executive blames increased demand for affordable housing spurred by economic growth and increasing rents and home price, along with a disinvestment in affordable housing for the cause of people being pushed to the brink of homelessness. This was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Constantine touted the county’s Health Through Housing initiative, which receives one-tenth of a cent of sales tax revenue for the purchase and operation of hotels to convert into emergency and permanent supportive housing.
The county’s goal is to create and sustain up to 1,600 affordable and supportive housing units for homeless people through the program.
As of the end of 2023, Health Through Housing acquired 1,495 housing units, with 1,358 units currently in operation. A report on the initiative found that the average capital per-unit costs among the properties were $273,021 from 2021 to 2023.
During the ChangeWA interview, Constantine was asked how could addiction and mental health issues not be considered significant when homeless people are showing signs of addiction. This question stemmed from Constantine’s 2024 State of the County speech, in which he said that “it is wrong” to assert that mental health and addiction are a cause of homelessness.
“Addiction and mental health issues are significant regardless of an individual’s housing status,” Constantine said in response. “They may be a cause or an effect of an individual’s homelessness – but whether the phenomenon of widespread homelessness exists in a place comes down to whether there are enough housing units for the number of people who need housing.”
Constantine partnered with other county leaders to create the King County Regional Homelessness Authority [KCRHA], which has served as the organization responsible for coordinating funding and services for unhoused people across all of King County since 2019.
KCRHA follows Constantine’s beliefs in a housing-first approach to addressing homelessness. However, a housing-first approach is not cheap.
According to the agency, a plan to increase housing capacity in King County to needed levels could potentially cost $450 million to $1.1 billion per year over the next 10 years.
In ChangeWA’s interview with Constantine, the executive said it was difficult to isolate funding specifically for homelessness. He added that county spending for housing, emergency response, public health and human services are all necessary for efforts to curb homelessness rates, making it difficult to provide a single definitive figure for annual spending.
The agency’s funding for nonprofit organizations increased from approximately $134.7 million in 2022 to $169 million in 2023, but homelessness statistics have worsened.
King County has budgeted $108 million for KCRHA from 2021-2024. Constantine deferred to KCRHA, saying it is better suited to provide a breakdown of its spending.
Next year will be Constantine’s last as the King County Executive. Last month, he announced that he will not run for reelection next year after serving in the role for 15 years.