Housing Alliance Policy & Advocacy Team

You can see our previous housing and homelessness analyses of:

Governor's budget here: 2015 Budget 1.0 - Our Analysis.
House's budget here: 2015 Budget 2.0 - Our Analysis.
Senate's operating budget here: 2015 Budget 2.5 - Our Analysis.

Check out our bill tracker here to compare each of the budgets.

You Did It! Your Advocacy Worked!

At around 9am on Wednesday, April 8, the Washington State Senate released their capital budget for the 2015-2017 biennium. You can read the budget in its entirety at this page. Then the Senate held their public hearing on the budget only three hours later. Despite the hastily scheduled release and hearing, we had a number of advocates in Olympia ready to testify. You can watch their testimonies below.

Senate Capital Budget

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$65 million for the Housing Trust Fund

Like the House's budget, the Senate's budget outlines a minimum number of homes and beds to be created for seniors, families with children, people with disabilities, veterans, homeless youth, and farmworkers. It also adds the category of homeownership to this list.

$20 million for Energy Matchmakers

This funding would help enable low-income households to make weatherization improvements to save homeowners money and decrease home energy consumption. This funding level matches the House's allocation.

0 for HTF Portfolio Preservation

Money in this category is marked for renovation and upkeep needs (aka “capital needs”) for homes that have received previous HTF funding. The House funded $5 million for HTF Portfolio Preservation.

0 for ultra energy-efficient affordable housing demonstration

These funds would be used to pilot innovative energy-efficient designs for single- and multi-family affordable housing. The House funded $5 million for this demo.

$200,000 for Spokane Fairchild purchase of land for affordable housing development

This small allocation is to help purchase land for affordable housing related to the relocation of low-income households from the Fairchild Air Force Base flight path. This also matches the House's alllocation.

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$2 million for Vantage Point Senior Apartments

This allocation is specificed for King County Housing Authority's Vantage Point apartment complex in Renton’s North Benson neighborhood. The 77-unit project will house low-income seniors and people with disabilities when it opens in late 2015.

$600,000 for proposed homeless veterans shelter at Western State Hospital

This allocation is to help create an emergency shelter for homeless veterans at unused buildings at Western State Hospital.

We hope the final budget passed by the entire legislature includes the House's suggested appropriation of $80 million for the Housing Trust Fund, and with the $5 million for the Housing Trust Fund Portfolio Preservation, and $5 million for the ultra energy efficient affordable housing demonstration.