Title
A MOTION requesting the executive provide an assessment report that makes recommendations on roles and responsibilities of the county and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority in responding to the regional homelessness crisis, and a motion accepting the assessment report.
Body
WHEREAS, on November 2, 2015, King County executive Dow Constantine and Seattle mayor Ed Murray proclaimed homelessness to be in a state of emergency in King County and the city of Seattle, and
WHEREAS, the county executive's 2015 proclamation stated that approximately ten thousand individuals were experiencing homelessness in King County, including more than three thousand seven hundred unsheltered individuals, and
WHEREAS, the number of individuals in King County experiencing homelessness has increased since 2015 to more than eleven thousand seven hundred individuals in January 2020, including more than five thousand five hundred unsheltered individuals, according to the 2020 Point-in-Time Count for Seattle and King County, and
WHEREAS, on December 18, 2019, King County executive Dow Constantine and Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan entered into an interlocal agreement approved by the metropolitan King County council, the regional policy committee and the Seattle city council creating a new King County Regional Homelessness Authority to oversee a coordinated and unified response to homelessness, and
WHEREAS, in the interlocal agreement, the county and city expressed their intent to provide annual funding to the authority equivalent to the amount of each jurisdiction's 2019 budgeted spending on homelessness, and
WHEREAS, since execution of the interlocal agreement, the King County council adopted Ordinance 19179, imposing a one-tenth of one percent sales tax, known as the Health Through Housing sales tax, which is expected to generate approximately fifty million dollars in annual revenue for construction of new affordable housing units and construction and operation of new ...
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