As multiple audits expose millions in missing and mismanaged public funds, King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn is calling for criminal investigations into the region’s homelessness and human services systems.
Speaking on The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, Dunn said the financial failures at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) and the Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) were predictable — and preventable.
“We spent many hundreds of millions of dollars taxpayer money to this program and they just had never been able to get off the ground,” Dunn said. “Their trajectory was clearly doomed to fail.”
His comments come after a forensic evaluation found KCRHA could not account for roughly $13 million in public funds, alongside a negative cash position of $44.7 million and about $8 million in unexplained receivables. While officials have not formally alleged widespread fraud, the report described a breakdown in basic financial controls, leaving leadership unable to track how taxpayer money was spent.
Dunn went further, suggesting the lack of oversight itself raises serious concerns.
“Of course there’s fraud, there’s significant amounts of fraud,” he said, arguing that the absence of audits and reliable accounting makes it impossible to rule out misuse.
At the same time, a separate scandal has emerged inside DCHS. A county investigation found program manager Yolanda McGhee steered more than $800,000 in grant money to companies owned by her family members over several years while overseeing a taxpayer-funded racial equity initiative.
McGhee, who ran the Liberated Village program, was fired in January. But according to investigators, warning signs were missed for years. Officials first received a complaint in 2020 alleging a “glaring conflict of interest” involving her daughter — and failed to act.
Even after managers later discovered payments flowing to her relatives, they did not escalate the issue or remove her from overseeing contracts. The program ultimately distributed more than $10 million through 19 contracts, some of which routed money to her family.
Dunn pointed to the case as part of a broader pattern.
“We have this huge problem with DCHS,” he said, referencing reporting that exposed the $800,000 in payments to McGhee’s family.
Oversight failures extend beyond individual cases. A recent audit found DCHS failed to conduct basic financial monitoring even as its budget ballooned from $22 million in 2019–2020 to more than $1.8 billion in 2023–2024, with nearly half of funded organizations flagged as “high risk.”
Dunn blamed both structural decisions and political avoidance for the lack of accountability, arguing that elected officials effectively outsourced responsibility for homelessness to an unelected authority.
“The whole idea behind the homelessness authority was so that politicians could push out a really tough issue to a group that could handle it and they wouldn’t get screamed at,” he said.
He added that for years, leaders avoided scrutiny while spending increased, and outcomes worsened.
“For the last six years… nobody thought to audit this thing,” Dunn said.
Now, he says, the situation has reached a turning point. Dunn is pushing for the creation of an inspector general with subpoena power and is urging both local and federal law enforcement to step in.
“The sheriff and… the federal law enforcement should be looking at this closely,” he said. “Public corruption is part of the series of charges that… the FBI can investigate.”
Despite growing calls for reform, Dunn warned that taxpayer money will continue flowing in the near term. King County contributes roughly $80 million annually to KCRHA, with the City of Seattle adding about $120 million — meaning roughly $200 million more is expected to be spent this year.
“It’s going to take a year or so to unwind,” Dunn said, adding that funds are still going to organizations he described as lacking proper oversight.
For Dunn, the core issue is public trust.
“We need to make sure the government is spending wisely,” he said. “If not, they’re wasting tax dollars.”
