SEATTLE — The Metropolitan King County Council in Seattle voted Wednesday to create a regional homelessness authority.
The Seattle Times reports the plan will next go to the Seattle City Council for a vote, where council members may make changes.
The plan would combine King County and Seattle governments’ homeless funding and policies under one regional authority, a plan recommended by consultants who say the current system’s lack of organization has hampered efforts to reduce homelessness.
Many local leaders hope to get the new authority adopted by the end of the year, before new elected officials take their seats on the county and city councils.
King County will pay almost $57 million to the authority’s $132 million budget, and Seattle city government is contributing $75 million.
The proposal has undergone a major overhaul giving more power to elected officials — including those in the county’s suburban cities — than in a previous version of the plan, which relied more on experts on the homeless and housing.
Though suburban cities aren’t currently helping to fund the authority, their buy-in is essential, said King County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles. That has upset some in the advocacy community, including the Rev. Bill Kirlin-Hackett, who said during public comments Wednesday that the move politicizes the authority.
The only member voting no was Dave Upthegrove, who opposes the creation of a new entity.
