Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

The Battle of the Budgets

With just a couple of weeks of the regular session left, the budget battle has intensified. The House released both their Operating and Capital Budgets last week, and they couldn’t be further from the Senate. The House’s inclusion of revenue, primarily from the closing of costly corporate tax breaks, allowed them more room to make deep investments in K-12 education (as required by the State Supreme Court’s McCleary Decision), while still investing in the safety net. Contrast this to the senate’s budget that didn’t close one tax loophole and instead relied on deep cuts to affordable housing and homelessness programs to balance their budget. The senate’s budget would cause at least 20,000 more people to experience homelessness. While the House budget maintains current investment levels in the Housing and Essential Needs program; the Aged, Blind, & Disabled program; Consolidated Homeless Grants; and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).

You can read more about the Operating Budget and the differences between the House and Senate budgets here.

The Washington State Budget and Policy Center has this overview of the revenue that the House included in their budget.

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Take Budget Action (Updated) Now that both chambers have released their budgets, and the Governor has released his budget priorities, negotiations will start in earnest. These negotiations will be led by budget writers and majority party leaders and will largely take place behind closed doors. But advocates like you have a powerful role. We have to push the House and the Senate to do the right thing and raise their Housing Trust Fund allocations to match the Governor's. It is important to take action again and again until the budget is signed. So please start your week off right by getting to a phone and clicking this link with our updated advocacy message to our legislators.

Housing Trust Fund Update

Over the past several weeks, hundreds of you have taken action to make sure the House continued to invest in the Housing Trust Fund. And although we were disappointed to see the House’s Capital Budget allocating just $51.5 million for the Housing Trust Fund, your advocacy made sure it wasn’t zero. And your advocacy can give us a chance of bringing up that allocation to match the Governor’s request of $65 million. Take action today, and keep standing by for more updates.

Here is how the House Capital budget breaks down for the Housing Trust Fund and affordable housing:

 • $51.5 million for the Housing Trust Fund. Allocations are limited to the projects named in this list, which allocates the following to these categories:
          ◦ $27.050 million for farmworker housing (11 projects named)
          ◦ $9.367 million for housing for homeless vets (6 projects named)
          ◦ $6.064 million for housing for people with chronic mental illness (3 projects named)
          ◦ $9.019 million for housing for people with developmental disabilities (10 projects named)

 • $4.5 million for public housing authorities to preserve 5 project-based buildings with expiring contracts. The appropriation is solely for the following projects:
          ◦ Charter House ($777,000)
          ◦ Emerson Manor ($829,000)
          ◦ Naches House ($1.065 million)
          ◦ Wenatchee House ($1.173 million)
          ◦ Harbor House ($656,000)

 • $14 million was allocated for one project (Building 9) in Seattle's Sand Point neighborhood. The funds will rehab an existing building and convert it to affordable housing.

 • $70 million in total was allocated for affordable housing. Note: earlier reports included an additional allocation for mental health beds that was put in Commerce's budget, but this has been clarified to not be for affordable housing, hence the adjusted number.

 • Additionally, $10 million was allocation for Energy Matchmakers. These funds are for weatherizing homes occupied by low-income households.

A Win for Tenants!

While the budget battle raged, the Fair Tenant Screening Act (SSB 5568) humbly continued its progress and won an astonishing unanimous vote on the House floor on Friday. Representative Steve O’Ban (R-28th) was joined by Representative Derek Stanford (D-1st), the prime sponsor of the House version (SHB 1529) in standing to urge their fellow elected officials to join them in voting yes. This bill has had a long journey and will soon be enacted into law when the Governor signs it. There are many thank yous to elected officials to go around. And since it passed both chambers unanimously, we all can simply thank our senator and representatives for voting yes on SSB 5568 and standing up to protect tenants. You can add this to your budget message when you call the hotline today: 1-800-562-6000.

Although we still have more progress to make in order to fully eliminate the barriers to housing that tenant screening reports create, take a moment to be proud. Because of your advocacy, more people will be able to find a safe, healthy, and affordable home due to closure of the discrimination loophole against survivors of domestic violence.

Time is Running Out...

Lastly, we hope you will be joining us at our 23rd Annual Conference on Ending Homelessness. The discounted registration rate ends today, Monday, April 15. So stop procrastinating. Sign up here before it is too late.

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