As Cuts to Critical Programs Loom, Latest Count Shows Sharp Increase in Homelessness

The main sources of funding for shelter and services are drying up.

By Erica C. Barnett

The King County Regional Homelessness Authority's update on its 2024 "Point In Time Count"—a statistical analysis based on interviews that took place over two weeks in January and February—shows that the number of unhoused people in King County increased by about a quarter between 2022 and 2024, a period when the city of Seattle actually lost shelter beds and had to be forced by the state legislature to allow more housing inside its single-family enclaves.

According to the KCRHA's new, more detailed report on the count, there were 16,868 people experiencing homelessness in King County in 2024, up from 13,368 in 2022.

KCRHA's fact sheet on the count says that a statistical analysis based on interviews with a relatively small number of unsheltered people is "better than the traditional volunteer PIT Count" because it results in a more realistic number. "Most people in the data science and homeless services sector agree that this traditional hand count results in an undercount, which may mask the full scale of the problem," the fact sheet says.

KCRHA plans to reduce a more detailed report this summer, staffers said yesterday. But a high-level breakdown of the numbers, comparing the probable number of unsheltered people in each "subregion" of King County, shows that the entire shelter system provides fewer than half the beds needed to accommodate the number of people living outside, dispelling a common canard that there is "plenty of shelter" if only people would "accept" it. The disparity was worst in North King County, where there are about 10 unsheltered people for every available shelter bed.

The numbers reflected the racial disparities that persist in the region's homeless population—Black, Latino, and Native American people were disproportionately likely to be homeless—and suggest (via pie chart) that two-thirds of the region's unsheltered people are chronically homeless.

KCRHA's new chief research and data officer, Timothy Thomas, showed the council a slide indicating that just 10 percent of people leaving the shelter system "exited" back into homelessness, while 27 percent had a "successful exit" into some form of housing. That leaves most of the people percent unaccounted for, Councilmember Claudia Balducci noted. "Where are the other 63 percent?"

Thomas bounced the question to Janelle Rothfolk, KCRHA's deputy chief community impact officer (these titles!), who responded, basically, that the agency doesn't know. "This would account for people who are still in in the shelter during that time, and people who were unsuccessful," Rothfolk said. "So that would be the remaining [people] who were who exited to unknown destinations or back to the streets, or they're still in the shelter when the year ended." The average time each person spends in shelter has continued to increase over the past several years, so beds are also turning over less frequently.

Balducci also questioned the KCRHA staffers' emphasis on the fact that the percentage of people housed through rapid rehousing programs—essentially, time-limited vouchers for market-rate housing—had increased 7 percent. While that number was an improvement, Balducci said, the number of households KCRHA housed through these programs actually declined about 18 percent, so that the apparent 7 percent increase is coming out of a much smaller number.

"Basically, we're serving less people, but they are more successful," Rothfolk acknowledged, noting that the amount KCRHA had to spend on rapid rehousing also declined.

Funding for homeless services, which flows into KCRHA primarily through the city, county, and federal governments, will almost certainly decrease this year and in future budgets. About 11 percent of the agency's budget, or around $23 million, comes from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care (CoC), which is facing cuts along with the rest of HUD. The Trump Administration has also said it will withhold CoC grants if agencies fail to comply with a number of onerous conditions, such as prohibitions on diversity, equity, and conclusion programs and programs that promote "gender ideology." For KCRHA, these would include programs for LGBTQ and particularly trans youth, programs that aim to address racial disparities in homelessness, or programs that are aimed at basically any marginalized group.

Meanwhile, the state budget—which largely funds the county's Department of Community and Human Services, as well as providing direct funds to KCRHA—is facing a multi-billion-dollar shortfall that Governor Bob Ferguson has resisted addressing with new taxes, such as a lift on the 1 percent property tax increase cap or a wealth tax.

A significant chunk of the shortfall comes from a decline in the state's document recording fee on real estate transactions,, which funds homelessness services; revenues from that fee are expected to be several hundred million dollars short this year, as the housing construction market stalls. In the past, the state has backfilled that shortfall through the Department of Commerce; but, according to King County budget director Dwight Dively, that isn't happening this year.

"Both the House budget and the Senate budget that came out a few weeks ago did not have the full document recording fee backfill, and, frankly, weren't even close," Dively told the council. "So assuming that that's where the state budget ends up, there will be revenue that we've budgeted from the state in the second half of this year for document recording fee backfill that we will not get. ... In that circumstance, either we have to immediately cut funding for homelessness services, and we all understand the consequences of that, or we have to find another revenue source to at least temporarily back fill that, and that's the general fund."

County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda suggested another path: If the county, state, and federal government all lack the funding to keep the region's already inadequate homelessness system intact, the KCRHA should be empowered with its own taxing authority. (The city and county made the explicit decision to deny the KCRHA taxing authority in 2019.) In LA, Mosqueda noted, "they didn't just stand up a regional homelessness authority. They stood up a funding mechanism" through voter-approved tax measures. "We did not add the ability for KCRHA to have taxing authority. And I think that that was a misstep then."

KCRHA's funding model has come under scrutiny from state auditors as well as city and county leaders, many of whom have privately questioned whether the organization has a future. In the years since the city and county created the King County Regional Homelessness Authority in 2019, the authority has been whittled down from an aspirational effort to address homelessness regionally, rather than city by city, into an essentially administrative agency that moves money between its funders and the nonprofit service providers who make up the homelessness "system."

In presentations last week (to the agency's governing board) and Tuesday (to the county council), KCRHA staff explained that the authortiy starts each year with no money in its bank account and starts going into the red as soon as the year begins, relying on ongoing what loans from the county and cash advances from the city to pay its contractors. Before last year, the KCRHA frequently paid providers late, prompting widespread complaints; they also failed to bill the city on time for some expenses, according to an October 2023 audit report.

Like other pass-through agencies, KCRHA operates on a "reimbursement model," which "inherently results in significant cash flow challenges due to the lag between incurring expenses and receiving funds," according to a February staff report. In February, the state auditor found that this model, which relies on "informal cash advances" and loans, is putting the KCRHA's "current service levels and future obligations at risk."

KCRHA pays interest on its loans, which takes away money that could otherwise be spent running the agency. According to the auditor, between January 2023 and September 2024, the KCRHA spent $431,000 on interest alone. On top of that, the KCRHA overdrew its checking account, racking up $35,000 in overdraft fees.

KCRHA spokeswoman Lisa Edge said the agency is now set to receive cash advances from the city every quarter, but it still has no reserves in case the city decides to change the arrangement in the future, or King County stops providing periodic loans.