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King County Regional Homelessness Authority approves 5-year plan
The five-year, scaled back outline has a $10 billion plan.
SEATTLE - The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) is pushing past recent controversy, with preliminary approval of its long-awaited five-year plan.
The approval comes during a week of change for the organization. On Tuesday, CEO Marc Dones announced he would resign.
Dones' salary, and that of roughly 100 other staff members, has been criticized as a major expense in an operating budget that jumped to over $80 million last year.
Meanwhile, KCRHA has called on subcommittee chair Shanee Colston to resign after an outburst defending a nominee to the board who is a registered sex offender.
"Everyone deserves housing. I don’t care if they’re a sex offender, I don’t care if they’re Black, if they’re Indigenous. I don’t care if they’re coming out of jail, prison-- everyone deserves housing," Colston said during the board meeting.
Colston shouted over another board member, who raised concerns with his nomination, and claimed the man had touched her as well.
"If anyone wants to talk like that, you will be muted," Colston said.
On Friday, a separate KCRHA committee advanced the 5-year plan proposal with unanimous approval.
The plan enables a vision promoted by outgoing CEO Dones, that $10 billion is enough to eradicate homelessness in King County. A figure that includes the massive investment necessary in new construction for shelters and low-income housing. The figure is far beyond the present-day KCRHA budget of $253 million.
"We want to be clear with the public and our boards that without new funding we will not have enough shelter or housing to bring significantly more people inside," Interim CEO Helen Howell said.
KCRHA is responsible for the region’s estimated 53,000 homeless. They say they've moved 5,600 of those people since last year, but their progress is still under scrutiny.
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