Dr. Kelly Kinnison’s path to becoming the Executive Director of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority began earlier this year. From the beginning, she felt this role was her destiny. Her interactions with elected leaders, community members, and staff along the way only reinforced her enthusiasm and commitment to lead the KCRHA in serving the homeless. Dr. Kinnison holds a doctorate in community psychology, which gave her the foundation for her work in social policy and research. Prior to joining the KCRHA, she served as the Director of Family and Community Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this Q&A, Dr. Kinnison shares why she wanted to lead the KCRHA, her vision, and the importance of the regional approach to addressing homelessness in King County.
Tell us something about yourself.
Kelly Kinnison: I’m from the Midwest and eventually went to the East Coast to do policy. I started in food policy, which was really wonderful and very place-based and community-focused. But I quickly learned that the world of food policy, particularly at the federal level, is isolated from the other programs for low-income people like health insurance and child care. That the food programs were isolated from the rest of the social services was really frustrating for me because I wanted to have more conversations that were person-centered and family-centered. So when the opportunity came up to go to the Department of Health and Human Services, I was really excited to be part of the Secretary’s office, where we had quite a bit of policy and research expertise that we could bring together to look at the bigger picture for low-income families.
Why did you want to lead KCRHA?
KK: I was just so excited by the vision of the people who put this whole thing together. I know KCRHA grew out of other organizations with similar goals that understood the idea that we need to coordinate and get out of silos and come together across different sectors to solve this problem together. And that was so evident in some of the materials that I got when I started looking into the post. Putting lived experience at the center, looking at evidence and data as a big part of our decision-making, highlighting best practices across communities, and creating space at this sub-regional level for communities to be different and have different priorities. And I thought, wow, this is great.
The core of my career has been equity and trying to make services and systems more equitable. I thought I have these great skills that I can bring to the table. This is an opportunity to get back to what I’ve been missing in my career, which is getting back to that engagement and partnership on the ground in the community.
What is your vision for KCRHA?
KK: My vision for KCRHA will be shaped by everything I still have to learn, and that’s a lot. I hear that a lot of the pieces needed to have an excellent, nationally recognized, regional homeless crisis response system are in place. We’re in a stabilization phase right now. If we can build the relationships that we need, maybe where those relationships haven’t existed in the past, if we can get more cities to understand what we can offer them, if we can get businesses and philanthropists on board, then I think we can really build a stable, effective homeless crisis response system while also having a healthy organizational culture. And from there, I’d like to see us set the table for other conversations, whether it’s just a place where behavioral health, health care, and employment support can come together to talk about what people need. That would be wonderful. I see a lot of opportunities if we can show that we know how to implement a regional service model, and I think we can do it.
The region has been tackling homelessness for some time and the situation can seem insurmountable, but I assume you do not see it as too great a challenge.
KK: It would be difficult to work in this space if I didn’t believe that we could significantly increase our chances of success in getting people into permanent housing. I think we have a lot of opportunities to create a more efficient system, a more connected system across the region. We can improve the way we house people in emergency shelters. I think we can house a lot more people and work toward the goal of homelessness being rare, short-term, and non-recurrent. I think we can get that done. I don’t think it’s going to happen quickly, but if we all come together and really focus on our goal, communicate clearly and transparently with our external partners, and utilize all the resources of the community, with the great service providers that we have access to, and some really established businesses and things like that, people will see progress.
Why is the regional approach still the best way?
KK: From a person-centered perspective, collaboration is really important. I also think it’s good governance to streamline services – all the contracts that need to be put in place to have providers available, to have bed capacity. Think about severe weather. Think about what happens when there’s a disaster like the fire we had recently in the tiny homes. Things like that are really challenging for any community to handle on their own, especially some of our smaller communities. And so I think a regional approach in this area makes a lot of sense.
You started on August 1st and have spoken to many people since then, from service providers to staff to board members. What would you like to share with the community about KCRHA?
KK: I want the community to know how dedicated they are to the mission, how difficult it has been for the staff to stay focused on our mission and continue to work for the people we serve every day despite the ups and downs that the agency has been through. The staff also has a lot of experience with homelessness and other systems. I think sometimes people assume that because we’re agency employees that we’re bureaucrats, that we all come from a position of privilege, or that we have different assumptions about who we are. We’re people with families who have experience and who really care about helping our communities and our neighbors. I think sometimes sugarcoating the work and the successes and failures of the agency doesn’t reach the people who also get disappointed when something doesn’t work out and get excited when we do something well and can see the impact we’re having.
This work is challenging. What motivates you to continue?
KK: KCRHA is in a position where what we do matters. What we do impacts the system, and we see whether it’s moving in the right direction or not. And that’s really what motivates me. My whole career has been spent working with people in poverty and making systems and programs better and more equitable. I’m not a subject matter expert on homelessness or housing, but I know how to build teams and high-functioning, healthy organizations. And I know how to work with people, and personally I love working in partnerships and teams. I’m not interested in doing it alone. I think that’s what the community has been asking for from the next CEO of KCRHA, someone who is very collaborative, who will listen and make the changes we need to help people as best as possible. That’s very motivating.
You moved here from the Washington area. Was there something in particular that drew you to the Pacific Northwest?
KK: I’ve been to the Pacific Northwest a few times to visit friends and just loved the weather and the beauty there. I’ve spent some time on the Oregon coast. I went to Seattle for work to tour a construction site. It made this wonderful first impression on me right away. I’m a city person. I love cities that you can explore on foot. I love public transportation. And the proximity to the water and the mountains just draws me. My husband and I live downtown and it was very important to me to live where I would see people outside every day and what was happening in downtown Seattle would be part of my daily experience, not just as part of KCRHA but as a citizen and a renter. It was very important to me to feel like I was part of the city and a witness to these issues that are playing out in our communities.
