“I was asked to assess and rebuild a young organization that had significant challenges,” Kinnison said. “I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, including surfacing structural issues in our finance department and contributing to the path forward for a more accountable homelessness response system.”

The resignation lands as KCRHA confronts mounting scrutiny over its financial management. An outside review covering the agency’s finances from its creation in 2021 through July 2026 estimated that roughly $16.7 million in public funds may be unrecoverable. The assessment did not identify fraud but attributed the loss to chronic mismanagement, including overspending on administration, legal fees, and Salesforce software.

Earlier findings had already rattled confidence in the agency. A forensic evaluation released in April documented a $44.7 million negative cash position between December 2023 and July 2025, a $4.26 million administrative operating deficit, and about $13 million in public funds that auditors could not fully account for. KCRHA officials initially suggested some of the unreconciled money might be reimbursements the agency had failed to bill to Seattle and King County.

The financial revelations have prompted some elected officials to call for the authority’s dissolution. King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn issued a sharp statement Friday, arguing the agency’s structure was flawed from the outset.

“I warned from the beginning that KCRHA’s fundamentally flawed structure would undermine accountability and make it impossible to deliver meaningful results,” Dunn said. “The organization was doomed from the start, and this resignation should not become an excuse to blame one individual for years of institutional failures. The experiment that was the KCRHA has officially failed! We must now urgently bring homeless services back under elected officials who can be held responsible for the success or failure of these programs.”

Rather than dissolve the authority, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson have pursued a restructuring plan. Under their proposal, Seattle and King County would take back most locally funded homelessness service contracts starting in January 2027, while KCRHA would retain a narrower regional role, including administering the federal Continuum of Care program. Zahilay has warned that dissolving the authority could jeopardize federal funding.

Wilson emphasized the need to stabilize the agency’s finances. “I have a responsibility to the people of Seattle to ensure that financial challenges at KCRHA are addressed and stabilized,” she said.

The board’s co-chairs, Zahilay and Wilson, will recommend a replacement for Kinnison. The leadership change comes as homelessness in King County has risen 9% over the past two years, according to the authority’s own data, underscoring the high stakes for the region’s response system.

KCRHA’s board has already instituted a hiring freeze and formed a finance committee in response to the audit findings. The agency’s future role remains a subject of intense debate among local officials, with the restructuring plan set to reshape how homelessness services are delivered across the region.