Tag Archives: homelessness

Wilson slows homelessness plan including shelter goals in roll-out of 2027 budget proposal

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Belmont Village opened on Capitol Hill this summer

Mayor Katie Wilson is adjusting her homelessness plan, stretching out the timeline, funding mechanisms, and scope to bring more unhoused people indoors while managing an inherited $175 million budget deficit.

Saying her updated plan “doesn’t promise quick fixes that paper over real problems,” Wilson said this week the changes are part of her proposed budget that will be released next Tuesday, the first budget under the Wilson administration.

While Wilson’s core goals remain in place including the establishment of approximately 1,000 emergency shelter spaces paired with wraparound services, budget realities are going to slow things down. In March, the administration framed the delivery of 1,000 shelter units as a single-year objective for 2026. The September update extends that goal through the end of 2027, scheduling 960 total beds to serve an estimated 1,750 people annually across facilities established in 2026 and eight sites slated for 2027. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s Hudson House apartments to become CoLEAD supportive housing on Summit Ave

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(Image: The Easton Group)

Capitol Hill’s Hudson House apartments, long operating as single-room occupancy rentals, is entering a new chapter under a supportive services partnership with Purpose. Dignity. Action., according to filings with the city.

Located at 1712 Summit Ave, the 1906-era 61-unit building has been serving as studio micro-apartments since its $4.5 million acquisition by the The Easton Group from Pioneer Human Services in 2024. Rents hovered around $799 a month, plus utilities.

Under its new plan, the building is being utilized as supportive shelter. On-site staff provide will provide intensive harm-reduction case management, room support, and exit coordination to guide residents off the streets and into housing, according to a recent job listing.

PDA, formerly known as the Public Defender Association, is a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to creating non-punitive, community-based alternatives to traditional criminal legal responses. Rather than developing or owning real estate, PDA focuses on diversion services, systems reform, and care coordination.

Ripples of the city’s increased spending on supportive housing and transition from eras of halfway houses and transitional apartments continue to be felt on Capitol Hill. Continue reading →

Proposed ‘Vehicle Resident Assistance Program’ includes new permit system, parking bans, and increased services for people living in cars, RVs, and buses

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The Seattle City Council is currently in its summer legislative recess but its work this fall will include an overhaul of the city’s approach to regulating car, RV, and bus encampments.

Councilmember Dan Strauss has introduced a six-part legislative package establishing the Vehicle Resident Assistance Program, a framework that creates a new permitting system for lived-in recreational vehicles, funds safe lots and secure vehicle storage, and imposes overnight parking bans across the city.

Previewed before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee earlier this month, the framework would use $5 million in funding to expand dedicated outreach teams, establish safe parking lots, and launch a “shelter storage” program allowing individuals to keep their vehicles in secure lots while transitioning into shelter. Continue reading →

Inside Capitol Hill’s Belmont Village — ‘This is how all of our efforts are connected’

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New neighbors are settling in at Capitol Hill’s Belmont Village.

“From the first contacts who got me and my girlfriend into our tiny home, the normalcy you never even have to think about was slowly regained,” one former Seattle tiny house village resident said at the July opening ceremony for the new shelter facility. “The worry stopped and I started to be back to my normal self.”

Built in a record 75 days for $1.1 million, Belmont Village has been open for a few weeks on Belmont Ave on Capitol Hill.

Managed by the Low Income Housing Institute and funded by the City of Seattle, the rapid construction provides a small response to regional needs. Belmont Village replaces the former Friendship Heights Village on Aurora Avenue, where LIHI is constructing 90 units of affordable senior housing.

“Tiny house villages reflect how we best meet people exactly where they are, offering a path forward grounded in dignity,” Mayor Katie Wilson said at the Belmont Village opening. “I am proud to continue our ongoing partnership with LIHI in our shared commitment of addressing the intertwined crises of behavioral health and housing.” Continue reading →

‘Record time’ — Belmont Village opens with 31 new shelter homes on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Low Income Housing Institute)

(Image: Low Income Housing Institute)

The Low Income Housing Institute has completed construction on Belmont Village, a new $1.1 million “tiny house village” community on Capitol Hill “in record time.”

Built in just 75 days following a May construction start, the enhanced shelter lot is being touted as a rapid response to the region’s homelessness crisis. The site, funded by the City of Seattle with support like donations by Mattress Firm.

“Tiny house villages reflect how we best meet people exactly where they are, offering a path forward grounded in dignity,” Mayor Katie Wilson said in the announcement. “I am proud to continue our ongoing partnership with LIHI in our shared commitment of addressing the intertwined crises of behavioral health and housing.” Continue reading →

As final mental competency period ends, First Hill homeless ax murder case heads to dismissal and civil commitment

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A memorial to Paul Ewell at the site where he was found murdered in 2024 (Image: United Way of King County)

Liam Kryger, the 27-year-old accused in two deadly attacks on sleeping homeless men killed in late night assaults on area streets in 2024, remains incompetent to stand trial, according to a newly filed state psychiatric evaluation.

The determination likely marks the end of his active criminal prosecution.

Kryger was arrested in early 2024 and initially charged with first-degree murder in the brutal ax slaying of 52-year-old Daravuth Van, who was killed while camping outside Town Hall Seattle. Prosecutors later added a second count of first-degree murder for the February 2024 killing of 68-year-old Paul Ewell, who was attacked while sleeping outside the Seattle Men’s Chorus building along 12th Ave.

Surveillance, phone location data, and a discarded ax purchased at a local Lowe’s linked Kryger to both homicides. Continue reading →

‘Regional Reset’ — Leaders unveil plan to restructure King County homelessness authority

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Zahilay at this week’s announcement of the restructuring plan (Image: King County)

King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson are pursuing a restructuring of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority that will significantly alter the organization, shifting it from a massive operations hub into an administrative and planning agency.

“KCRHA was created because homelessness is a regional challenge, and I continue to believe a regional response is the right approach,” Zahilay said in a statement. “But believing in a regional response also means making sure it works. Zahilay and Wilson said their plan is about about “stabilizing KCRHA, right sizing its focus on the work it is best positioned to lead, and resetting the future vision of our system.”

The overhaul plan comes after a troubling April 2026 forensic audit found massive deficiencies in the authority’s financial management, internal controls, and oversight. While KCRHA says it can account for and cover a portion of $4.26 million of “administrative overspend” identified in the audit, officials there say they disagree with findings that identified another $8 million in poorly tracked spending.

CHS reported here on Zahilay and Wilson’s plan to embed an independent financial analyst and services team into KCRHA to help better guide the organization.

The full plan will build on that embedded team with plans to rip out service contract management responsibilities from KCRHA, narrowing the authority’s focus to core administrative tasks like the Point in Time Count, severe weather coordination, and the Coordinated Entry System while also freeing the organization to more efficiently and, hopefully, effectively, pursue federal funding.

By stripping away contract administration, KCRHA is being “right-sized” to mimic more successful programs across the country like those in Houston or New York City.

The responsibility to manage contracts with service providers will return to city and county departments. Under the overhaul effort, a comprehensive Contracts Transfer Plan will be submitted to city and county councils by August 1st with a goal of officially shifting service contracts back to local government departments by January 2027.

Continue reading →

11,829 — Report shows another big jump in people living on streets, in vehicles, or in parks as sheltered totals drop

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(Image: CHS)

New “Point In Time” reporting reveals a sharp rise in King County’s unsheltered population, even as officials say the overall trajectory of the crisis may be slowing. Any slowdown is a complicated trend.

According to data from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, the number of unsheltered individuals jumped from around 9,800 in 2024 to 11,829 in 2026, a 21% increase in people living on the streets, in vehicles, or in parks.

Meanwhile, the new report shows the total of overall homelessness increased only 9% as the sheltered population actually dropped in the two-year period. That trend isn’t good news. According to the report, the overall slowdown is due, in part, to changes in shelter capacity pushing people into the elements. Officials say the crisis has been compounded by a net loss of 689 emergency shelter beds across the system. Continue reading →

Wilson and Zahilay agree on plan to ’embed a financial services team’ in first step to clean up King County Regional Homelessness Authority mess

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Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and King County Executive Girmay Zahilay say they are taking action to oversee the King County Regional Homelessness Authority after deeming the agency’s recent “Corrective Action Plan” insufficient.

Calls to dissolve the authority continue.

The officials have announced a joint effort to immediately intervene. Starting this month, the city and county will embed an independent financial analyst and services team into KCRHA.

“My top priority is ensuring that the most vulnerable members of our community receive the shelter, housing and services they deserve,” Wilson said this week, adding that the embedded team will help shore up KCRHA’s financial and internal controls. Continue reading →

Seattle City Council sets August deadline for mayor to sort out King County Regional Homelessness Authority mess

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The Seattle City Council has set a date for leaders and Mayor Katie Wilson to chart a path for the city on homelessness in the fallout of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority audit.

The council this week approved a resolution crafted by its Human Services, Labor, and Economic Development Committee members Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Dionne Foster, Debora Juarez, Rob Saka, and District 3 representative and council president Joy Hollingsworth that directs Wilson to immediately safeguard public funds and assess KCRHA’s upcoming corrective action plans.

The resolution calls on the mayor to recommend by August 1st whether the city should restructure KCRHA, continue as is, or terminate the Interlocal Agreement and dissolve the authority entirely. Continue reading →