Learn at Lunch

The Senate and House have released their budgets. And the Governor has released his budget priorities. What does it all mean and what's next? We'll help you decipher the complex budget lingo within these documents and what these budgets tell us about our affordable housing and homelessness priorities for this year.

We also have an update on what's been happening at the federal level. Sequestration has begun and we've only seen the beginning of the cuts that are steadily working their way through the budget pipeline and out into our communities. I'll talk about where the budget deal for Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13) landed, and how the current budget negotiations for FY14 are shaping up.

Resources

The pdf version of our slideshow.

Our housing and homelessness analysis of the Senate and House Budgets.

Please take action by telling your legislators to match the Governor's Housing Trust Fund allocation.

How we talk about housing and homelessness and the words we use to advocate are extremely important. This Learn at Lunch presents more than a decade of campaign-proven public opinion research on the most effective messages to make our case in the legislature. These are advocacy frames focused on passing the programs and legislation that save lives, like Housing Trust Fund, Housing and Essential Needs/Disability Lifeline, and the Fair Tenant Screening Act to name a few.

Michael Anderson is the Deputy Director of the Housing Trust Fund Project at the Center for Community Change. He helped the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance develop the messaging that we now utilize in all of our materials.

Resources

The pdf version of Michael's slideshow

The Housing Alliance Housing Trust Fund Talking Points One Pager is a great example of how to use values framing in advocating to your legislator.

If you would like to view this archive, please email State and Federal Policy Associate Ben Miksch at benm@wliha.org.

Last year, advocates were able to get passed into law the Fair Tenant Screening Act. This legislation was aimed at addressing serious and growing problems in the reports tenant screening companies prepare for landlords who are evaluating potential renters. However, the work isn't done. For example, important protections for survivors of domestic violence were taken out at the last minute, which is why advocates are working on introducing a Part 2.

Linda Olsen from the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Stina Jansen from the Tenants Union of Washington, and Nick Federici from the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance talk about how tenant screening reports can be a barrier between people and affordable housing and what we need to do in Olympia to fix it.

Resources

From the state legisature website: SB 6315 Fair Tenant Screening Act, Part1

Northwest Justice Project Video on Washington's Fair Tenant Screening Act

Slideshow on Fair Tenant Screening Act, Part 2

If you're interested in passing a Board Resolution supporting the Fair Tenant Screening Act, Part 2, please contact Outreach and Mobilization Manager Sakara Remmu.

TANF is one of the most critical pieces of the safety net for vulnerable families across our nation. But in 2011, Washington State enacted some of the deepest cuts in recent history, cuts that led to more than 17,000 children losing benefits. It also reduced the amount of help remaining families on the program could receive.

Co-conveners of the Welfare Advocates Group Lonnie Johns-Brown and Laurie Lippold discussed what we need to do to protect this program from more cuts and restore the benefits that keep families from falling into homelessness.

Resources

Factsheet on the Child-Only TANF Types

Slideshow on the History of TANF

One Pager on Expanding the Exceptions to the TANF Five-Year Time Limit

Briefing on TANF §1115 Waivers

Factsheet on TANF Education and Employment Reform

Factsheet on the TANF Grant

For this session, we bring back Doug Rice, Senior Policy Analyst on housing with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Our presenter discussed the latest updates on the federal budget decisions that lie ahead of us in January and what they could mean for affordable housing and homelessness. We also discussed federal advocacy strategies regarding sequestration.

Resources

Sign our petition against sequestration cuts to affordable housing and other social services.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities information page on the Renter's Tax Credit.

The National Low Income Housing Housing Coalition information page on the National Housing Trust Fund.

Doug's Off the Charts blog post about sequestration and housing: For Housing Assistance Recipients, Unbalanced Budget Deal Would Be Worse Than No Deal at All.

This session featured Brock Howell and Tim Trohimovich, both with the organization Futurewise, Washington's only statewide group working to ensure that local governments manage growth responsibly.

Our presenters talked about the basics of the Growth Management Act and how it matters for affordable housing advocates. They covered what the act covers, how it ties to housing, the timeline for plan updates, and most importantly how to get involved.

Resources

Brock Howell and Tim Trohimovich's Powerpoint Presentation.

This session featured Doug Rice, Senior Policy Analyst on housing with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Our presenter discussed the federal budget decisions that lie ahead of us and what they could mean for affordable housing and homelessness.

Resources

Doug Rice's Powerpoint Presentation.

The Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute provides a full list of sequestration exemptions.

The list is also available in the appendix of this paper by the Congressional Research Service: Budget “Sequestration” and Selected Program Exemptions and Special Rules.

This session featured Lori Pfingst from the Washington State Budget & Policy Center.

Our presenter contributed a lot of ideas on how to participate in the ongoing debate around policy solutions for ending poverty.

Resources

Lori Pfingst's Powerpoint Presentation.

This session featured Doug Rice, Senior Housing Policy Analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Michael Linden, Director for Tax and Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress.  

Our presenters overviewed the past, present, and future of the national debate on debt. They also rovided updates on how current budget proposals interplay with debt and deficit issues and discussed debt and deficit reduction's particular impacts on affordable housing, homelessness, and on low-income people.

Resources

Doug Rice, Budget Challenges and Low Income Housing.

Michael Linden's Powerpoint Presentation.

This session featured Steve Walker of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, Monika Elgert of Enterprise Community Partners, Mark Kantor of Kantor Taylor Nelson Boyd & Evatt PC, Paul Purcell of Beacon Development Group, and Erin Gulick of Senator Maria Cantwell's office.

The first half of the session was a "LIHTC 101," outlining how the program works and how it's applied in Washington State. The second half addressed topics of interest to LIHTC practicioners, including updates on new legislation to improve the way the tax credit works as well as tips on advocating for the tax credit and affordable housing.

Resources

Mark Kantor, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits: An Overview.

Erin Gulick, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit: S. 1989/H.R. 3661.

Monkia Elgert, Evaluating a Tax Credit Investment.

Steve Walker, Housing Credits - It's Simple.