This week, King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced a proposal to create a Regional Authority to fight homelessness in King County.  Throughout King County there are dozens of governments, philanthropies, nonprofits, and businesses working to address homelessness.  These efforts have often been disconnected from one another, decreasing their impact and creating inefficiencies.  The idea is to speed up the system by simplifying and streamlining services and eliminating duplication in contracts to providers serving the same populations by providing strong central leadership and direction. The idea isn’t a new one, having been a recommendation from national experts for a number of years and United Way has been vocal in its support for a regional authority since 2017. Legislation is now working its way through both the city and county councils.

United Way of King County Sr. Director of Ending Poverty and Homelessness was recently on KUOW’s ‘The Record’ to discuss the proposal.  You can hear the 20 minute discussion here, just scroll down to the segment titled ‘King County Board to Address Homelessness’.