This webinar focuses on how to best engage lawmakers in their home districts during the legislative interim to strengthen homelessness programs and invest in affordable housing. The period between state legislative sessions is a prime time to build relationships with lawmakers and to lay the groundwork for legislation in 2015.

You'll learn about:

• Strengthening your relationship with elected officials.
• Elevating visibility of homelessness and affordable housing in your community.
• Helping elected officials deepen their understanding of complex issues.
• Providing a hands-on, experiential learning opportunity.

Resources

Pdf version of the slideshow: Lawmaker Engagement Strategies During the Legislative Interim

Housing Alliance presents this phone conference recap of the 2014 session. Housing champion Rep. June Robinson (38th LD) shared her thoughts on lessons from her experience in Olympia and what you can be doing during the interim to advance affordable housing and homelessness issues. Washington Housing Alliance Action Fund Field Organizer Brianna Thomas also talked about some of the important advocacy actions you can do in the interim.

Resources

Housing Alliance blog post summarizing the 2014 legislative session

This webinar featured National Low Income Housing Coalition Senior Policy Analyst Sham Manglik and Washington Low Income Housing Alliance State and Federal Policy Associate Ben Miksch talking about the United for Homes campaign. This is a national plan to end homelessness by being smarter about the dollars our country is already investing in housing. By updating the largest national housing program -- the Mortgage Interest Deduction -- we can fund the National Housing Trust Fund and ensure that everyone in America has the opportunity to live in a safe, healthy, affordable home.

Resources

Housing Alliance United for Homes One-Pager

Pdf version of Sham and Ben's slideshow

This webinar featured DSHS - Aging and Disability Services Administration Project Manager Yolanda Lovato. She talked about HealthPath Washington and discussed how housing and homeless providers can partner with this new program to ensure those with the highest medical needs get the best possible medical services and care coordination.

Resources

Washington State Department of Health and Human Services HealthPath Washington page

This webinar's presenters include Andi Smith, Governor Jay Inslee's Senior Policy Advisor for Human Services; Debbie Thiele, Corporation for Supportive Housing Senior Program Manager; and Jack Thompson, Cedar River Group researcher (who is also researching the social determinants of health). They will lead us through the key places for affordable housing/homeless providers and advocates to plug in to help make the most out of the Affordable Care Act.

Please check out our Medicaid Expansion Resource page for our comprehensive collection of links and handouts about what affordable housing and homelessness providers should know about Medicaid expansion.

Resources

We've assembled all State Innovation Models (SIM) and State Health Care Innovation Planning (SHCIP) links at our Medicaid Expansion page.

Health Care Authority list of community-based trainings

Pdf version of Jack Thompson's slideshow

Pdf version of Debbie Thiele's slideshow

Andi Smith did not have a slideshow for this webinar.

How you can follow the progress of our State Health Care Innovation Planning:

• Visit the project web site regularly and follow the updates.
• Sign up to receive regular communication from the State Health Care Innovation Planning Feedback Network. You can send a brief request to: simquestions(@)hca.wa(.)gov.
• Register for upcoming webinars at this Washington State Health Care Authority page.

The legislature has elected to expand Medicaid coverage for everyone across the state. This means expanded access to mental healthcare, healthcare, and dental for your most vulnerable clients. Enrollment for Medicaid expansion begins October 1, 2013. It's just around the corner. Are you ready? The Housing Alliance will host a series of webinars to help homeless and housing providers prepare for Medicaid expansion and ensure our state enrolls all qualified individuals experiencing homelessness or living in affordable housing.

This webinar covers:

• Who qualifies?
• What does the enrollment process look like?
• How are communities engaging service providers in the enrollment process?
• Who are in-person assisters and how can your organization benefits from them?
• What are the major barriers to enrolling homeless individuals in Medicaid and how can we overcome these barriers?

Please check out our Medicaid Expansion Resource page for our comprehensive collection of links and handouts about what affordable housing and homelessness providers should know about Medicaid expansion.

Resources

Health Care Authority/Health Care Exchange Webinars

PowerPoint version of their slideshow

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.