King County Exec signs executive order on homelessness, addiction

SEATTLE - King County Executive Girmay Zahilay on Tuesday signed an executive order taking aim at the connected crises of homelessness, addiction and incarceration.

The order establishes the Breaking the Cycle Initiative, which the County Executive's Office says aims to expand affordable housing and shelters. Additionally, the order directs housing, health and legal systems to better coordinate, as well as for county offices to explore revenue for new houses.

Per the executive order, all of these endeavors will be measured with performance metrics to identify what is or isn't working.

The executive order was informed by the final recommendations of Zahilay's transition team, who have experience in local policy, housing, human services, labor and philanthropy.

What they're saying:

"We need to end the cycle of crisis that sends vulnerable neighbors repeatedly through emergency rooms, jails, shelters, and back onto the streets without finding stability or recovery," said Zahilay. "This Executive Order will take concrete steps to align partners, actions, and funding across the continuum to help more people rebuild their lives and create healthier, safer communities across King County."

"To break the cycles identified by Executive Zahilay, we have to fix the systems that perpetuate them," said King County councilmember Rod Dembowski. "Let’s take a hard look at lessons learned over the last decade about what works and what hasn’t, and make the changes we need to in order to see meaningful progress toward healing and housing our vulnerable neighbors." 

"You can’t have stability, health, or healing without the basic necessity of a place to call home—and too many across our county are facing just that reality," said councilmember Teresa Mosqueda. "Today’s Executive Order sets up King County and our partners to act, collaborate, and identify tools at our disposal to create the housing and shelter our communities need. Breaking cycles means building the supports and structures that lead to lasting stability. I commend Executive Zahilay for his leadership and vision to initiate this process."

Mary's Place CEO Dominique Alex also issued the following statement:

"Homelessness is not inevitable, and neither is the cycle that can trap people in crisis. When housing, health, and human services work together, people don't just survive. They stabilize. They recover. They thrive. I was honored to serve on Executive Zahilay's transition team and to see those discussions become action. This Executive Order builds the connective tissue our region needs, and when all of us, government, providers, and community, stay connected and committed, this is solvable."

Dig deeper:

Specifically, the order will:

• Open 500 units of shelter and housing in 500 days, working with the Department of Community and Human Services and King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
• Repurpose ‘underutilized’ and vacant county properties, identified through an inventory process.
• Order King County departments to assess the data to determine where people fall through the gaps with regional services.
• Meet frequently to discuss policy and funding solutions to improve inter-department coordination.
• Explore dedicated revenue sources for housing.

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