As readers will recall, King County Executive Dow Constantine admitted in a recent ChangeWa interview that he couldn’t provide even a rough estimate as to how much taxpayer money he had spent on the homeless issues. He also refused to provide even one public goal for the much-maligned King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) to justify its public expense.

This disrespectful attitude towards the taxpayers (who have been forced to fund these ineffective policies) has carried over to the new KCRHA CEO, Kelly Kinnison.

Kinnison was selected last year to lead the troubled government body after all other qualified candidates dropped out of the hiring process. She is being paid $290,000 a year plus a full benefits package to replace the controversial Marc Dones, who quickly demonstrated he was woefully unprepared to lead the organization.

In a recent Puget Sound Business Journal (PSBJ) interview, Kinnison side-stepped a question asking for a timeline on when the public can expect to see positive results on the homelessness front.

PSBJ: When will things improve?

Kinnison: There’s a very real public demand to see progress, I get that. The public, I think, wants folks to have a place to go, and they’re concerned about their neighborhoods. It’s completely valid. The press for a quick fix is very intense, and if it were possible, it would have already been done, right?

Ms. Kinnison should know the public gave up on a “quick fix” years ago, as they kept seeing their parks and sidewalks taken over by drug-filled encampments.  After seeing billions of their tax dollars wasted on building an inefficient housing bureaucracy while homelessness skyrocketed 63%, the public does not expect the problem to suddenly evaporate. After ten years without any progress on homelessness, the public may be mollified that there could be a change in direction.

Unfortunately, the PSBJ article provided no expectation that things would improve.

Between the interviews with Constantine and Kinnison, our government leaders have recently shared publicly that:

1. We have no idea how many total tax dollars have spent on homelessness.
2. We have no goals to meet to justify funding KCRHA.
3. We have no timeline for when there will be positive results from KCRHA’s efforts.

It is fair to argue that this lack of accountability is a major factor in why the region has failed in its response to the homeless crisis. With no public goals to meet and no fiscal accountability, our government leaders continue to waste our money on ineffective programs that benefit special interest groups. Meanwhile, record numbers die on the streets and thousands more suffer without shelter.

Effective public policy needs the following:

1. clearly defined goals
2. data-based decision making
3. public engagement
4. evaluation of costs and benefits

With the King County Executive and KCRHA leading the region’s homelessness effort, none of these criteria are currently in place. And this is ten years after declaring homelessness an emergency.

Another concern the Kinnison interview revealed is that the career bureaucrat appears to be firmly committed to the failed Housing First strategy.

Kinnison provides a cursory acknowledgement to other approaches, then proceeds to state the false Housing First argument that we need to spend even more taxpayer money on providing free housing instead of focusing on the crippling addiction and mental health problems which 65% of homeless individuals self-report (the true percentage is likely much higher) they possess.

PSBJ: It doesn’t seem like a solution to homelessness is in grasp. What do you say to that?

Kinnison: We need to really look at our policy choices. We know that for a very long time, we have not invested in affordable housing, and homelessness can only be addressed by having homes to move folks into. We also need to focus on prevention efforts to keep people housed. My role is to have a system where, when folks come into it, we address their needs as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Essentially what Constantine, Kinnison, and other Housing First advocates are saying is until taxpayers provide homes for all those who are homeless (along with building a huge housing bureaucracy), we can’t help them with their addiction/mental health issues. This is the same failed policy that has led to a 63% increase in King County homelessness since it was declared an emergency in 2015.

King County voters will select a new county executive this November. This office impacts homelessness more than any other political post. If voters seek improvements on the homeless issue, they must demand from the candidates their clear goals and timeline for reducing the suffering.

80% of our state’s voters believe that homelessness is a serious issue that is only getting worse. Now is the time to make sure the candidates hear our voice.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services