From our founding in 1988, we have a long history of changing public policy and securing budget investments that move us closer to a time when everyone in Washington has a safe, affordable place to call home. The policy and budget wins below don’t cover everything we’ve accomplished – or the harmful policies we’ve prevented – but represent some of our most significant wins.

Click on each year from more information about progress made during those legislative sessions.

This is a work in progress. Please check back for updates in the future!

2024 

Budget: 

• $60 million to help backfill the projected funding gap from document recording fees 

• An additional $127.5 million for the Housing Trust Fund, bringing the two-year total to $527.5 million for affordable housing for the biennium. 

2023 

Budget: 

• $400 million for the Housing Trust Fund. 

• $40 million for land acquisition. 

• $14.5 million for shelter and housing for homeless youth and young adults.  

• $6 million for preservation and investments in manufactured housing communities.  

• $60 million for infrastructure needed when building new affordable homes. 

• An 8% increase in the Aged, Blind and Disabled cash grant starting in 2024.  

• A permanent ongoing increase of $26.5 million for the Housing and Essential Needs rental assistance program.  

• An ongoing homeless services increase of 6.5%, which is a $45 million investment in our state's frontline provider workforce.  

• Over $50 million for HB 1260/Alvarado to eliminate the ABD repayment requirement.  

• $5 million for eviction prevention and increased funding for tenant's right to counsel.  

• Funding was also included to backfill the loss of funding for homeless services and to prevent cuts, plus an additional $18 million to help cover a portion of the local shortfall that cities and counties are experiencing for locally funded homeless services.  

2022 

Combining federal pandemic relief money and state funds, the legislature invested $2.4 billion to address the housing needs of people in Washington in 2021-2022. 

Budget: 

• $114 million for the Housing Trust Fund 

• $240 million for Rapid Housing Acquisition 

• $60 million for the new Apple Health and Homes program 

• $15 million for homeless youth facilities 

• $2 million for manufactured housing preservation 

• $9 million for affordable housing development utility connections 

• $2 million for pre-eviction legal aid 

• $55 million for frontline homelessness service providers 

• $68.5 million for rental assistance 

• $4.5 million for foreclosure prevention 

• $45 million for services to help transition people experiencing unsheltered homelessness into affordable housing  

• And funding to permanently increase the Aged, Blind, and Disabled cash grant from $197 to $417 per month. 

Policy: 

• SB 5749/Trudeau requires landlords to provide rental payment options beyond just an online portal. 

• HB1643/Hackney, creates a real estate excise tax exemption to give nonprofit affordable housing developers and local governments a leg up when competing for properties, making it easier and quicker to build more affordable housing. 

• HB1866/Chopp, creates the “Apple Health and Homes” program which will increase and streamline permanent supportive housing, pairing it with health services. 

2021 

Budget: 

• $350 million in the capital budget to build and preserve affordable homes, (including $175m for the Housing Trust Fund and $120m to acquire properties that can be quickly converted to housing or shelter) 

• $658 million for rental assistance 

• $187 million for foreclosure prevention 

• $72 million for shelter and housing for people experiencing homelessness 

• $27 million increase to Housing and Essential Needs rental assistance  

• A new permanent fund source for rental assistance and efforts to prevent and end homelessness. 

Policy: 

• Right to counsel, making Washington the first state to guarantee a lawyer for tenants in eviction court who are low-income or otherwise can’t afford one.  

• Just cause: HB1236 requires that landlords have a legitimate business reason to make someone move, ending the practice of giving tenants 20 day “no cause” notices. This closes a loophole in fair housing laws and will ensure that rental assistance doesn’t just pay back landlords but keeps people in their homes. 

• Lead by our partners at Futurewise, we strongly supported HB1220 which prevents cities from banning shelters, transitional housing, or permanent supportive housing; requires jurisdictions planning under the Growth Management Act to identify policies that create racially disparate impacts, displacement, and exclusion – and to identify and implement policies to undo that harm.  

• Capital gains: The legislature passed a 7% excise tax on extraordinary profits from the sale of financial assets of over $250,000 per year. This tax would be paid almost exclusively by the richest 1% of Washingtonians and generated almost $900 million in the first year of collections. We participated in this coalition effort lead by the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, Balance our Tax Code Coalition, Invest in Washington Now, and many others who have been working for years to make our tax code more equitable.  

2020 

Budget: 

• $55 million for the Housing Trust Fund to build and preserve affordable homes. Added to last year’s budget, this makes the two-year Housing Trust Fund total $230 million, the largest biennial investment to date!  

• $15 million a year to increase the Housing and Essential Needs rental assistance program for disabled adults. 

• $15 million a year, for three years, to operate and maintain permanent supportive housing for people experiencing long-term homelessness with significant behavioral and physical health needs. 

• $68 million for shelter for people experiencing homelessness. 

Policy: 

• ESHB 1694/Morgan, Allows move-in installment payment plans to help address the massive cost of moving, capping holding fees and providing a penalty. 

• SHB 1590/Doglio, Provides cities and counties the ability to implement the local sales and use tax for affordable housing through a council vote. The legislature created this option in 2015 but required a ballot measure, and only a handful of cities have been able to use it. SHB 1590 will make implementing this option quicker and more efficient, and could result in nearly $150 million for affordable housing and behavioral health programs across the state. 

• ESHB 2535/Kirby, Provides for a grace period before late fees may be imposed for past due rent and allows disabled and elderly tenants receiving federal income assistance to request a rent due date more in line with the date that their monthly income arrives.  

• SHB 2384/Doglio, Modernizes and expands a property tax exemption for affordable housing providers. This will significantly help nonprofits who often run on modest budgets to provide the affordable homes our communities so urgently need.  

• ESSB 6378/Kuderer, Makes improvements to last year’s eviction reform bill (SB 5600) including improvements to eviction notices so tenants are informed about resources and improvements to the court eviction process so that tenants can stop an eviction when they are able to access rental assistance.  

• SHB 2343/Fitzgibbon, This is a follow-up bill to last year's 1923 also by Representative Fitzgibbon which addressed barriers to building affordable housing, incentivized cities to create housing plans and more. Most significantly for affordable housing, SHB 2343 lowers the transit frequency times required in order to prevent a local jurisdiction from requiring parking for affordable housing which is a very significant and unnecessary cost drive to building affordable homes. 

2019 

Budget: 

• $175 million to the Housing Trust Fund.  
• Housing & Essential Needs received a $14.5 million increase: its first-ever increase, despite rents soaring statewide since its inception in 2011.

Policy:

• Local communities gained a brand-new source of funds to build affordable homes with the option to retain a portion of the state sales tax they already collect, thanks to HB 1406/Robinson. 
• A robust eviction reform bill, SB 5600*/Kuderer, allowing tenants 14 days (instead of three) to catch up on late rent. 
• HB 1440*/Robinson increases the amount of notice landlords must give tenants of rent increases from 30 to 60 days. 
  
  *These two tenant protection bills combined to form the largest-ever overhaul of the state’s Residential Landlord-Tenant Act since its inception in the 1970’s. 
• HB 1923/Fitzgibbon tackles local regulations that unnecessarily raise the cost or complexity of building affordable homes; for instance, reducing the parking requirement in developments near transit hubs. A new $2.50 document recording fee will fund local planning grants. Starting in 2024, the fee will support operation and maintenance of permanent supportive housing or affordable housing – the first-ever such dedicated funding source! 
• Affordable housing and labor advocates found agreement on HB 1743/Ormsby to control the cost of building affordable homes, while ensuring wage increases to the workers who build them. 

2018 

Budget: 

• $107 million in the supplemental budget for the Housing Trust Fund 

Policy: 

• After more than a decade of advocacy to prevent source of income discrimination, HB 2578/Riccelli made it illegal for landlords to refuse to rent to someone just because they use a housing voucher, or another form of rental or income assistance to help pay their rent.  
• HB 1570/Macri: Increased document recording fees that fund efforts to prevent and end homelessness. It was estimated that the new funds would help an additional 11,500 experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. 
• HB 2667/Macri: Allows people with permanent disabilities to retain their housing assistance while they apply for federal disability benefits.