We advocate for positive policy change in Washington State.
Stay tuned! Our 2014 State Legislative Agenda is coming soon! Keep track of us at our Twitter profile and Facebook page. We'll post there once we've updated this page.
Our lead and support items for our 2013 State Legislative Agenda are below. Through an extensive decision-making process, the Housing Alliance Public Policy Committee (PPC) helps determine our state legislative agenda that the board later approves. The PPC is comprised of individual Housing Alliance members from across the state who together have a depth of housing and policy experience representing the spectrum of affordable housing and homelessness stakeholders.
Lead Items – Legislation and policy that the Housing Alliance directly advocates for.
Support Items – Legislation and policy that our members lead on and that we also support.
Each item has a unique #hashtag that we’ll be using to provide up-to-the-minute legislative updates during session at www.twitter.com/wliha.
Watch this page for regular updates. For more information, contact Director of Policy and Advocacy Michele Thomas at michele(at)wliha(.)org.
State Legislative Agenda: 2013 Lead Items
|
Download the State Legislative Agenda Lead Items PDF Click to jump to that section: Housing Trust Fund |
Image
|
Strengthen Healthy Communities by Creating Affordable Housing - Make a Significant Investment in the Housing Trust Fund
#HTF2013
It should be possible for veterans, seniors, working families, and people with disabilities to afford housing and still have enough money for the basics like groceries, gas, and childcare.
Washington’s Housing Trust Fund (HTF) helps make this a reality. Housing Trust Fund dollars help create quality, affordable homes that allow people to improve their lives, while reducing or eliminating their need for social services. When someone has an affordable home, they are more likely to retain employment or attend school and stay off the street. The HTF creates the homes that enable people to quickly get off the streets and move forward in their lives.
The Housing Trust Fund also funds good jobs and stimulates the economy. Since 1989, Housing Trust Fund dollars have brought in more than $3 billion from private and public sector support to build or preserve more than 40,000 homes across the state. Thus, an investment of $175 million in the Housing Trust Fund will help holistically energize Washington’s local economies—creating healthier, vibrant, and affordable communities across the state.
A significant investment in the The Housing Trust Fund addresses the state’s continued need for affordable housing and economic invigoration as we slowly recover from the Great Recession.
Resources
We drafted this letter to legislators detailing our specific HTF ask as we move into special session. Consider creating one for your organization to hand to legislators as you meet with them during the two-week break. For an editable document of this letter, please email michele(at)wliha(.)org.
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Housing Trust Fund Fact Sheet - Updated 03/29/2013
Housing Trust Fund Talking Points - Updated 03/11/2013
Protect Washington’s Most Vulnerable People - Preserve the Housing and Essential Needs Program/Disability Lifeline
#HEN2013
Imagine experiencing a severe condition that temporarily prevents you from working. For some barely making ends meet, it becomes a struggle to keep their home and afford their basic needs as they recover. They live each day on the edge of homelessness. Thousands of Washingtonians find themselves in this bind daily. The state’s Housing and Essential Needs program helps by providing rental assistance and such essential needs as toiletries and hygiene supplies until they’re back on their feet. A related program Aged Blind Disabled (ABD) also provides additional financial support for those with long-term and permanent disabilities, such as the elderly and those with severe vision impairment. Thus, supporting both the Housing and Essential Needs and ABD programs helps the state’s extremely vulnerable keep their homes. These individuals may be your neighbors or live just down the block from you. Make sure they can continue to be housed and off the streets.
Protect your most vulnerable neighbors; do not enact any more cuts in this biennium and fund the Housing and Essential Needs program, Washington’s safety net.
Resources
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Housing and Essential Needs/Disability Lifeline Fact Sheet - Updated 01/03/2013
Housing and Essential Needs/Disability Lifeline Policy Brief - Updated 01/02/2013
Housing and Essential Needs and Aged, Blind, and Disabled Community Statement of Support - Added 04/26/2013
Housing and Essential Needs Performance Data (through 10/31/2012)
Aged, Blind, or Disabled (ABD) and Medical Care Services (MCS) Client Housing Status
Make Tenant Screening Reports Fair and Accurate for All Renters - Enact Part 2 of the Fair Tenant Screening Act #FTSA2013
SHB 1529/Stanford and SHB 5568/Hobbs
If you’ve ever been the victim of an incorrect or erroneous credit report, then you’ll understand the need for tenant screening report regulation. If any company is creating a tenant report about you, it should be accurate and should fairly represent your history as a renter. Currently, when a tenant is named in an eviction lawsuit, tenant screening companies merely state you were involved and that’s it—they don’t have to explain the circumstances or the ruling outcome. The eviction could’ve been thrown out or the court could’ve ruled in favor of the tenant. But, none of this really matters because tenant reports list all eviction lawsuits as equal, even when the tenant wins. No matter the outcome, tenants have a mark on their record that makes it significantly harder to find housing, especially in tight rental markets.
Tenant screening reports can also make life more difficult for survivors of domestic violence whose lives have already been turned upside down. Some tenant screening companies unfairly include domestic violence records in their screening reports. This can cause a domestic violence survivor to be denied housing, a terrible and even dangerous situation for someone trying to flee their attacker.
With the current screening reports, both tenants and landlords lose out. Support the Fair Tenant Screening Act for accurate and fair reporting.
Tell your representatives why you support HB 1529.
Tell your senator why you support SB 5568.
Resources
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Fair Tenant Screening Act-Part 2 Fact Sheet - Updated 03/11/2013
Create New Revenue for Affordable Housing - Ensure Any New Value Capture Finance Tool Supports Ending Homelessness
#EVC2013
Washington State is growing. And with this growth comes the increased need to ensure that every Washingtonian has the opportunity to live in a safe, healthy, and affordable home. Thus, addressing the increase in our population presents both an opportunity and a challenge. Because how we prepare for this growth will decide the shape of our state for decades to come. We must ensure the investments we make to add transit, modernize infrastructure, and support businesses uphold the values of Washingtonians: protecting diverse, thriving communities and ensuring no one gets priced out of their own neighborhood.
Our Equitable Value Capture tool would allow eligible cities and counties to pass an ordinance to impose an excess property tax on property owners within a specific district. This is an additional tax property owners would be able to levy on themselves–schools, local and state government, and other recipients of property tax revenues would not be impacted. But this tool must include adequate support for affordable housing and address other important social concerns like sprawl and environmental conservation.
Enacting Equitable Value Capture Finance for affordable housing continues our tradition of using financial innovation to build affordable homes for Washingtonians.
Resources
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Equitable Value Capture Finance Fact Sheet - Updated 02/01/2013
Pugest Sound Regional Council pdf on Model Value Capture Financing Legislation
Enact Revenue to Avoid Cuts to Services and Programs
#NewRevenueWA
The Housing Alliance encourages our elected officials to continue exploring new sources of revenue, including taxes, to preserve critical programs like Washington Families Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Basic Health, Working Connections Childcare, and others. We advocate our legislators to prioritize keeping people safely housed and programs offering paths out of poverty.
Washington residents value caring for our most vulnerable, and our budget priorities should reflect that.
Resources
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
State Legislative Agenda: 2013 Support Items
Download the State Legislative Agenda Support Items PDF
These are in no particular order.
Enact revenue to avoid cuts to services and programs
It is time for Washington to revamp our outdated tax policies to create a system that is truly just and that can fund essential needs and safety nets for our state’s most vulnerable residents. Over ten billion dollars have been cut from the state budget over the past several years, and programs and services for the poor are cut to the bone. We now need to put the health and safety of our communities first by revisiting and revamping our tax structure.
Learn more at our partner’s website: Our Economic Future.
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Support Washington Families Fund
The Washington Families Fund provides stable, long-term funding for both on- and off-site supportive services linked to affordable housing for families. The Washington Families Fund allows nonprofit organizations to leverage support from private sector partners and community foundations to increase comprehensive and individualized case management services for homeless families throughout the state.
Download the fact sheet from the Building Changes website.
Download this fact sheet on how the Washington Families Fund can increase student achievement and save school districts money. (Created by the Seattle University Project on Family Homelessness.) - Updated 02/05/2013
Learn more at our partner’s website: Building Changes.
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Protect TANF and the families that rely on this important program
HB 1342/Walsh and SHB 1734/Sawyer
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a critical safety net for vulnerable families across the state. But in 2011, Washington State enacted some of the deepest cuts to the program in recent history, cuts that led to more than 17,000 children across our state losing benefits and a reduction in the benefit for those remaining on the program. We support our partners’ goals of restoring the grants and implementing other improvements to make TANF work better for Washington’s families.
Check out our list of resources to learn more about TANF here.
Learn more at our partners' websites: Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights (POWER) Welfare Rights Group and the Statewide Poverty Action Network.
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Reduce barriers to developing affordable homes on unused public property
HB 1563/Farrell and SB 5598/Mullet
Public entities should be explicitly allowed to discount unused public property for affordable housing. By aligning land disposition policies and affordable housing goals while instituting local flexibility, we can put unused property to its highest and best use. This will promote equitable development in high opportunity areas, stimulate redevelopment, and build more affordable homes.
Download this fact sheet from the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County (HDC)
Learn more at our partner’s website: Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County (HDC).
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Protect youth aging out of foster care
HB 1302/Roberts and SB 5405/Murray
Each year, approximately 500 youth age out of foster care at 18. For many, this means losing the support all youth need to attain educational, work, and housing goals as they transition into adulthood. Washington State should fully implement the extended foster care provisions of the federal Fostering Connections Act. Then all youth in the foster care system will have the opportunity to remain in care or in a supervised independent living setting until the age of 21.
Download this fact sheet from The Mockingbird Society website.
Learn more at our partners' websites: The Mockingbird Society and Partners for Our Children.
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Permanently reinstate the 72-hour notification rule for homeless youth in the shelter system
HB 1250/Orwall and SB 5147/Hargrove
Since 2010, shelters had a 72-hour window to notify the parents of unaccompanied minors entering their shelter. The extended notification period made it possible for shelters to keep youth safe while supporting family reconciliation and reunification. The policy has expired, returning to an eight-hour notification, which can be too short a time for shelters to engage youth and often drives youth away, putting their health and safety at risk.
Download this fact sheet from the The Mockingbird Society website.
Learn more at our partner’s website: The Mockingbird Society.
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Protect Washington's Housing Trust Fund investments
HB 1617/McCoy and SB 5439/Benton
The Department of Commerce is working to ensure the long-term preservation of the state’s Housing Trust Fund (HTF) investments in affordable housing. The repayment of HTF loans fund the administrative costs of HTF programs. The proposed changes would ensure the continued preservation of existing housing assets in the event of reduced or eliminated appropriations to the fund, while still providing statutory limits on administrative costs. We propose these changes with no fiscal impact on the general fund or capital budget investment.
Learn more at our partner’s website: Washington State Department of Commerce.
Find out the status of this legislative priority at our Bill Tracker.
Mobile Home Landlord Tenant Act Clarification
The Association of Manufactured Home Owners and the National Manufactured Homeowners Association are working on several improvements to clarify aspects of the Manufactured/Mobile Home Landlord-Tenant Act. More information will be forthcoming.
Learn more at our partner’s website: Association of Manufactured Home Owners.