Kenneth King

07/31/2026

Puyallup City Council member Lindsay Smolko and Mayor Ned Witting speak at the East Pierce County Town Hall regarding Homelessness and Recovery, about how the current cost of services can be lowered if planning and response is more effective.

07/31/2026

Pierce County Council Candidate Kenneth King wraps up the East Pierce County Town Hall regarding Homelessness and Recovery at the Puyallup Community Health Care building.

Speaking about laws, mental health, substance use, and approaching the needs of our community with compassion and understanding.

07/30/2026

One of my opponents mentioned they had a food and clothing pantry in the back of their office...
Yeah, me too.

07/30/2026

The entire uncut video

Pierce County Council Candidate for District 1 / Behavioral Health and Crisis Intervention Specialist Kenneth King is joined by:

Tacoma School Board Member Chelsea McElroy,
Bethel School District Director of Equity, Access, and Community Engagement Darius Alexander,
Bethel School McKinney-Vento Liaison Echo Abernathy,
Family Promise of Puget Sound CEO Steve Decker,
City of Puyallup Mayor Ned Witting,
and speaking as an education specialist and a Puyallup City Council member, Lindsay Smolko.

Discussing the impact of homelessness and recovery issues in East Pierce County on our community, families, and children.

At no point tonight did anyone talk about drug addicts, how our community members deserve to be punished, or forcing our expectations on others.

Around here, we build up community; we don't tear down community members.

(Shout out to Steve and Jenice for capturing video and audio)

Pierce County Council Candidate for district 1 / Behavioral Health...

07/29/2026

Pierce County Council Candidate Kenneth King and Family Promise of Puget Sound CEO Steve Decker discuss the data points behind homeless children and families fleeing domestic violence at the East Pierce County Town Hall regarding Homelessness and Recovery at the Puyallup Community Health Care building.

07/29/2026

Primary election day is August 4th, we have three dems running for county council district 1.
Your vote absolutely counts, even in this republican strong hold, we have the chance to win as recent elections have been decided by single digit percentages.

But you have to decide now, which of our candidates will be going on to the general election.

07/29/2026

Preview of tonight's Town Hall on Homelessness and Recovery in East Pierce County, at the Puyallup Community Health Care clinic.

Tacoma School Board Member Chelsea McElroy and Bethel School District Director of Equity, Access, and Community Engagement Darius Alexander talk about the view of homelessness in our schools and their own lived experiences.

At no point tonight did anyone talk about drug addicts, how our community members deserve to be punished, or forcing our expectations on others.

Around here, we build up community; we don't tear down community members.

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More video to come after processing. We will release the full unedited video as well as clips for viewer accessibility.
(Shout out to Jenice for filming and Steve for making sure there were backup copies of audio. We worked very hard to make sure that this information is available and not lost.)

07/28/2026

Today at 3pm!

Due to availability, there has been a line up change.

Darius from the Bethel School district
Echo Abernathy Bethel McKinney-Vento Liaison.
Chelseá Nichole from the Tacoma School Board
Ned Witting the Mayor of Puyallup
Lindsay Smolko from Puyallup City Council
Steve Decker the CEO from Family Promise
And Myself.

This is an Open Invitation to Candidates who may want to hop up and join

This Tuesday, next to the Puyallup Sounder station.

Please remember, this is not a presentation. This is a discussion.
You will be able to ask questions as we go.
This is not going to be folks standing up and saying what needs to be done or who to blame. This will be about why the laws are how they are, what happened to get us here, and what portions of our community are actually at risk.

It's not going to be an easy discussion, but it has to be done, and it has to be open.
Just a couple of days until the East Pierce County Town Hall regarding Homelessness and Recovery.

Share this out. The more people particpating in this talk, the more effective it will be.

07/28/2026

"Kenneth King, a behavioral health provider who sits on the county's Continuum of Care governance board and is running for the District 1 council seat, called the URA "a critical step forward" that could end the practice of forcing people to travel 30 miles from places like Bonney Lake or Spanaway into Tacoma for basic services.

But King warned that data gaps undermine the system's foundation: jails, hospitals, and mental health facilities do not participate in coordination discussions, and their contacts with unhoused people never enter the county's Homeless Management Information System.

King told The Urbanist that incomplete data creates blind spots. If a jurisdiction doesn't fund services, he said, "your service counts will falsely tell you nobody is there."

Pierce County's new Unified Regional Approach to Homelessness, passed 5-4 on June 9, promises coordinated services across the county but faces unresolved…