(upbeat music) - I'm Jay Martin Jr. in the Crosscut KCTS9 newsroom.

Housing vouchers are sitting unused at some rural Washington agencies.

While King County leads the nation in distribution, that's not the case across the state.

As part of the American Rescue Plan, the federal government launched a $5 billion effort to rapidly house people living on the streets by giving out 70,000 new housing vouchers.

Seattle and King County housing authorities have used over 85% of their vouchers.

But in other parts of the state, hardly any of the vouchers have been used, putting those agencies at risk of losing funding if they don't turn things around before a September 2023 deadline.

Housing officials who spoke with Crosscut said they lack the staffing to shepherd clients with high rental barriers through a tight market, with few available units and even fewer willing landlords.

I'm Jay Martin Jr. Find Non-profit Northwest News every day on Crosscut.com.

(upbeat music)