Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

Last week ended with the first fiscal cutoff on Friday. This meant that if a bill had fiscal impact, it had to clear a fiscal committee in its house of origin or it's dead for the session. Any bill that is officially deemed "necessary to implement the budget" is an exception to this rule, as mentioned in the last Week in Housing Advocacy. Many good affordable housing and homelessness bills are still alive. Their next hurdle is clearing the floor of their house of origin by March 13.

Good Budget News

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The Washington State Supreme Court released a ruling on Thursday that could significantly improve the Legislature’s ability to take action on tax issues, including the closing of corporate tax loopholes. The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that the Tim Eyman voter-approved 2/3 super-majority requirement is not in line with the state’s constitution, and therefore the law is struck down.

For too long, the supermajority requirement has tied the hands of lawmakers and has left few viable options other than cuts to address budget deficits. The raising of taxes and the closing of unfair tax loopholes will now only require a simple majority of lawmakers. This is key for raising the much-needed revenue to ensure everyone has an opportunity for a safe, healthy, affordable home. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that we'll be able to raise significant revenue. Political hurdles still remain. Read more about these obstacles at the Tacoma News Tribune blog.

Housing Alliance Lead Priorities

Fair Tenant Screening Act

The Fair Tenant Screening Act continued to make progress this week when Senator David Frockt pulled SSB 5568 from the Senate Rules Committee with the support of Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles. It is now on the Senate Floor Calendar, but needs Senate leadership to bring it up for a vote. Watch our Twitter reports for updates.

**UPDATE** We received word that the Fair Tenant Screening Act (SHB 1529) passed the House today! Here is the vote breakdown. Congratulations to everyone who took action on this very important piece of legislation. 

Housing and Essential Needs/Disability Lifeline

The Housing Alliance and our advocacy colleagues met with the governor’s office, the Department of Commerce, and DSHS on Thursday to bridge differences on how to address the Housing and Essential Needs Program this session. The program needs an update because it's linked to the medical care program Medical Care Services (MCS) that will be obsolete once the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion goes into effect in our state on January 1, 2014. Additionally, funding needs to be reallocated to maintain the program in this year’s budget, along with the related Aged, Blind, and Disabled (ABD) program. These issues, along with other Housing Alliance priorities like increasing the ABD cash grant from the measly $175 were all on the table for discussion. The Housing Alliance will be reaching out to HEN providers across the state to share more details and to request help with story collecting. Feel free to contact me at michele@wliha.org if you have a compelling story about how HEN has helped you or someone you know.

Equitable Value Capture

The Housing Alliance worked with several of our members throughout the interim to create a tool that could invest public resources to bolster transit-rich, healthy, and affordable communities without causing displacement and gentrification. We sat at the table convened by the Puget Sound Regional Council’s “Growing Transit Communities” grant and worked in good faith with a variety of stakeholders, including for-profit private developers (NAIOP), the Association of Washington Cities, Futurewise, and Forterra. Although we made significant progress, the discussions recently ended with some stakeholders saying that they would no longer negotiate on fundamental issues for affordable housing.

Then similar, but very different legislation was introduced that unfortunately does not provide nearly enough protections against displacement and gentrification. Instead, HB 1967 and it’s accompanying constitutional amendment HJR 4210 would invest public money into communities with the goal of raising property taxes without providing current residents with enough protections and without ensuring that the community would be affordable to future fixed and low-income home seekers. This is a shame, given that the Housing Alliance believes transit-rich, healthy communities should be accessible to people of all income ranges, including those with the lowest incomes. The Housing Alliance testified against at the public hearing on the bills and will continue to oppose the legislation with hope that we can revisit the conversation during the interim.

Tell 'em at Town Hall

Tell your legislators to invest $175 million in the Trust Fund and to support our priorities during March 16 Town Hall meetings.

Many elected officials are planning on hosting town hall events on Saturday, March 16. So far, the 43rd and 48th Legislative Districts have released details (see below). Town halls can provide an excellent opportunity to share your priorities with your elected officials. Please consider attending yours and when you go, take these talking points with you.

Keep a close eye on our blog and Facebook page for more details. We will post information as soon as we get it.

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23rd Legislative District Join Rep. Drew Hansen, Rep. Sherry Appleton, and Sen. Christine Rolfes at the next two 23rd Legislative District Town Hall meetings. Date: Saturday, March 16, 2013 Time: 10:00am – 11:30am Place: Eagle’s Nest, Kitsap Fairgrounds: 1200 NW Fairgrounds Road, Bremerton, WA 98311 Time: 1:30pm - 3:00pm Place: Poulsbo City Hall: 200 NE Moe St. (and 3rd Avenue NE), Poulsbo, WA 98370 More information at Rep. Hansen's office (360) 786-7842

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48th Legislative District Join Rep. Cyrus Habib, Rep. Ross Hunter, and Sen. Rodney Tom for the next 48th Legislative District Town Hall meeting. Date: Saturday, March 16, 2013 Time: 10:00am – noon Where: Redmond City Hall, Council Chamber: 15670 NE 85th Street, Redmond, WA 98052

The Housing Alliance Wants to Partner with You

The Housing Alliance wants to make advocacy easy for you. We can work closely with you and your organization to customize advocacy. One example is our new action page partnership with Homestead Community Land Trust. They are the first organization to partner with the Housing Alliance to make online advocacy easier for Homestead’s board and members. Check out their new action page and contact me (michele@wliha.org) if you’d like to learn more on how you can create a page for your organization as well.