Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

Last week started off with some great news! On Monday, Part 2 of the Fair Tenant Screening Act (FTSA) continued to make progress when the Senate version SSB 5568 passed the floor of the Senate 46 to 3. This continues our trend of gaining significant bipartisan support and lines up the bill nicely for a finish. But let's not get too comfortable. With the budget battle around the corner, we need to get this and all other good policy bills finalized. Over the last several years, many uncontroversial bills similar to FTSA have died because of the immense energy swallowed up by budget battles. Luckily, the Senate bill has already been scheduled for a hearing in the House for Wednesday at 8:00am. And unless your Senators are one of the three no votes (Senators Janéa Holmquist Newbry, Mike Padden, and Linda Parlette), please send them a quick thank you for voting yes! Click here to find out your Senator's contact information.

Reforming Tenant Reports DOES Matter!

A timely report was released last week by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty that makes the case for the importance of FTSA. FTSA will make it illegal for tenant screening companies to report that a tenant is a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. And the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty release highlights the need to regulate the way court records are reported. As we’ve been saying for years, these court records unfairly create barriers to housing. And tenant screening companies should not report on them. From their publication:

Domestic and sexual violence are leading causes of homelessness nationally. In some areas of the country 1 in 4 homeless adults reported that domestic violence was a cause of their homelessness, and between 50% and 100% of homeless women have experienced domestic or sexual violence at some point in their lives. Some victims and their families lose their homes when they flee abuse. Other survivors become homeless after being wrongfully or discriminatorily evicted or denied housing as a result of the violence against them. Others lose their jobs because of their abuser’s interference with their ability to work. 

You can read the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty's full report There's No Place Like Home here.

More Good News from our Advocacy Partners

We were relieved when the Foster Care to 21 Senate Bill passed last Wednesday’s floor cutoff close to the 5:00pm deadline. E2SSB 5405 (that’s Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill) passed unanimously and now heads over to the House. Contingent upon funding, this bill will extend foster care services for youth aging out of the system who meet one of the following eligibility requirements: participating in a program or activity designed to promote employment or remove barriers to employment; engaging in employment for 80 hours or more per month; or incapable of engaging in any of the activities designed to promote employment or remove barriers to employment. The state currently extends foster care to youth still in high school or working on a high school equivalent and youth in a postsecondary program. Adding the three remaining categories would complete implementation of the Federal Fostering Connections and Increasing Adoptions Act, passed in 2008. The House version is also still alive and passed the House on March 8 with significant bipartisan support.

Good Riddance to Bad Bills

Many of the bills the Housing Alliance had concerns about died in yesterday’s cutoff. The top example is SSB 5280 which would have significantly harmed tenants rights by allowing tenants to be accused of criminal trespass if they couldn’t produce a copy of their rental agreement, among other things.

The Budget Battle Approaches and We'll Need You

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In about two weeks, everything will be about the budget. And we have a lot at stake. We need to make sure that Housing and Essential Needs and the Aged, Blind and Disabled programs are not cut and that the Housing Trust Fund receives a significant allocation out of the Capital Budget. Funding for the Washington Families Fund, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), and other important safety net and anti-poverty programs all need to be funded. Sequestration has made things worse. New caseload assumptions plus the impact of sequestration may add up to $500 million to an already large deficit of about $900 million. This is on top of the K-12 education spending requirements from the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision that are estimated to cost about $1.5 billion. But all these figures will be updated on Wednesday when the latest revenue forecast is officially released. After this, we will have a clearer picture of how big the hole is and how much revenue would be needed to fill it.

Stand by for action alerts and other opportunities to take action.

Meanwhile, life goes on outside Olympia and the Housing Alliance is busily getting ready for the upcoming 23rd Annual Conference on Ending Homelessness which will take place Wednesday, May 15 and Thursday the 16th in Tacoma. Register before April 15 to get an early bird discount. And go here to learn more.