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I'm Venice Buhain in for Paris Jackson.

Homelessness response in King County could look a little different next year, after the King County Regional Homelessness Authority undergoes what city and county officials call a reset.

But what is the KCRHA, and what does it do, exactly?

In a series of stories this week, The Newsfeed is looking at the organization's history and explaining the next steps in the county's homelessness response.

The Regional Homelessness Authority was established in 2019 amid concerns that the homelessness response was fragmented and the numbers of people unhoused in King County was rising.

That was four years after the county and the city of Seattle had declared homelessness a public health emergency in 2015.

Different governments across the region signing different contracts with service providers with different standards for performance, seeking different outcomes.

No more.

King County in Seattle tasked the organization with managing the contracts for providers of services for the unhoused, like shelters and housing.

Then Mayor Jenny Durkin and then County executive Dow Constantine called it an innovative approach.

But we are always encumbered by some fracturedness of the system, and today we take a step to change that.

We begin a new era of accountability, of bringing data driven solutions into the crisis and making sure that we have the right people at the table.

Despite the calls for regional buy-in, in the bulk of the authority's $200 million annual budget was funded by King County and Seattle's contracts to service providers.

And seven years after that press conference, new administrations in Seattle and King County announced a change.

We are taking further action to stabilize right size and reset KCRHA.

This week, we'll hear from some key voices about what's next for the KCRHA and what the future might look like for a regional response to homelessness.

Thank you for watching The Newsfeed.