King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) Chief Executive Officer Kelly Kinnison, Ph.D., has submitted her letter of resignation, effective November 16, 2026. Her departure comes as King County and the City of Seattle prepare to transition the administration of locally funded homelessness service contracts back to local government oversight starting in January 2027.

Kinnison, who was hired as permanent CEO following a national search in 2024, served as the agency's fifth leader. She previously worked as the Director of Family and Community Policy at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her resignation was accepted by the KCRHA Governing Board following a forensic evaluation that identified historical deficiencies in the authority's internal controls and financial systems. In response to the evaluation, local leaders announced a joint plan to stabilize, right size, and reset the agency.

Reflecting on her tenure, Kinnison highlighted her efforts to address underlying operational issues within the agency. "I was asked to assess and rebuild a young organization that had significant challenges," Kinnison said. "I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, including surfacing structural issues in our finance department and contributing to the path forward for a more accountable homelessness response system." During her leadership, Kinnison worked to stabilize provider operations, improve system coordination, strengthen severe weather response, and rebuild agency operations after high leadership turnover.

Governing Board co-chairs King County Executive Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson thanked Kinnison for her service and confirmed they will soon recommend interim leadership. Executive Zahilay noted that Kinnison managed complex coordination efforts amidst a shifting federal landscape and institutional hurdles. Mayor Wilson emphasized her responsibility to Seattle residents to stabilize financial management at the agency.

However, the resignation prompted strong criticism from regional officials who have long questioned the authority's governance structure. King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn issued a statement arguing that the organizational model was flawed from the start.

“I warned from the beginning that KCRHA’s fundamentally flawed structure would undermine accountability and make it impossible to deliver meaningful results. The organization was doomed from the start, and this resignation should not become an excuse to blame one individual for years of institutional failures,” said Dunn. “The experiment that was the KCRHA has officially failed! We must now urgently bring homeless services back under elected officials who can be held responsible for the success or failure of these programs.”

Kinnison offered her resignation in recognition of the upcoming shifts in KCRHA's scope, mission, and contract management responsibilities as operations transition back to the City of Seattle and King County.