(The Center Square) – The King County Regional Homelessness Authority plans to implement a 22% decrease in its overall workforce to address a projected $4.7 million budget shortfall in 2026. The decision comes at a time of anticipated federal funding cuts and budget challenges from Seattle and King County.
KCRHA attributes the shortfall to several factors, including a lapse of one-time pandemic-related federal funding, a historically low – 5.7% to 8.5% – administrative rate, and a reimbursement-based funding model that forces the agency to take out high-interest loans.
In a governing board meeting on Monday, KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison said initial actions taken by KCRHA to help address the $4.7 million budget shortfall included a hiring freeze for almost all of 2025 and “extremely limited travel.” The agency also significantly reduced its use of consultants and moved some staff from less consequential positions to more essential operational roles.
KCRHA’s new plan reduces its administrative budget by approximately $3 million and its administrative office from 106 full-time positions to 84, accounting for the 22% decrease.
“Where we could, we eliminated vacancies [and] we also focused on leaning out our leadership structure,” Kinnison said. “I’ve heard from many of you that the structure felt top-heavy.”
According to Kinnison, the employees that will be cut were not directly engaged with the service providers the agency funds.
KCRHA will also maintain its hiring freeze, with few exceptions, through the first six months of 2026.
When KCRHA revealed its preliminary 2026 budget to the governing board in June, administrative costs totaled $13.77 million, a 7.4% rate. A presentation at the time noted that the industry average administrative rate is 10% to 20% for comparable agencies.
The $13.9 million is $4.7 million less than the $18.6 million that the agency estimates is needed to sustain operations, giving KCRHA the ability to make internal reductions to offset the budget shortfall.
In September, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell asked KCRHA to look more closely at how a regional approach to King County’s homelessness crisis is applied, due to some 70% of Seattle’s homeless population becoming homeless outside of the city.
According to Harrell, 85% of tiny homes in King County are located in Seattle, as well as 63% of shelters. The city also contributed $110 million to KCRHA in 2025, 53% of KCRHA’s total budget. King County contributed approximately $53 million, and other cities have contributed approximately $403,000.
Kinnison said KCRHA expects to see a cap on federal spending for permanent supportive housing, as part of President Donald Trump’s executive order redirecting federal funding from Housing First strategies to treatment first models.
This means KCRHA could potentially lose about $23 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care program.
“If we’re reading the tea leaves, [that cap] is likely to be at about 30%, which is much less than we have historically spent on permanent supportive housing,” Kinnison said.
