The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) has a new leader: the agency’s board announced this week that starting Aug. 1, Kelly Kinnison will head the agency.

Kinnison is a policy director at the US Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. and takes over at an uncertain time for KCRHA.

The agency has been without permanent leadership for more than a year after the agency’s founding CEO, Marc Dones, left in May of 2023. Additionally, the city of Seattle -- one of the KCRHA’s largest funders -- announced in February that it was pulling back financial support from the agency, and there have been calls from local officials to restructure the organization. 

So what kind of agency will Kinnison be taking the helm of? Soundside is joined by Erica Barnett, co-founder and publisher at PubliCola.

• Read Erica Barnett's latest reporting on the KCRHA's vote for a new permanent CEO here.
• Read PubliCola's broader reporting on the KCRHA here. 
• Read the latest reporting from the Seattle Times' Greg Kim on the departure of the agency's interim CEO, Darrell Powell, here. 

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