Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

The Senate's Budget

Last week was dominated by the release of the Senate’s budget, which cuts affordable housing and homelessness programs by 52%.

Last Tuesday, at around 9:30pm, the Senate suddenly announced they were going to release the budget the next afternoon and then hold a hearing on it right after. When the budget was finally released near 1:00pm on Wednesday, it left only a little over two-and-a-half hours to read it before the 3:30pm hearing. Despite the outrageously short notice, six Housing Alliance members were able to rush down and testify on the deep cuts to the Housing and Essential Needs (HEN) program and on the elimination of the Aged, Blind, and Disabled (ABD) program:

Thanks to our testifiers: Greg Winter from the Whatcom Homeless Service Center in Bellingham; Jennifer Milton and Kate Stragis from Community Action of Skagit County; Alison Eisinger from the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness; Ania Beszterda-Alyson from the Low Income Housing Institute; and Robin Koskey of Building Changes.

Do you have comments of your own on the budget? Join our action to send letters to the editor to share why you think the safety net should be funded. Email our Community and Member Organizer Alouise Urness at alouise@wliha.org to learn more.

Read our previous blog post for our breakdown of the deep cuts to affordable housing and homelessness programs in the Senate budget.

The Senate passed the budget out of committee on Thursday and then passed it off the floor on Friday night, 30 to 18. Many good amendments that would have restored cuts to homelessness and affordable housing programs failed to make it onto the budget. Senator Jeannie Darneille (27th-Tacoma) introduced three amendments – one to restore the deep cuts to the Consolidated Homeless Grant, one to restore the cuts to HEN and ABD, and another to eliminate a cruel cut to the TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) grant, in which the family’s grant is capped at their initial family size when first seeking TANF assistance, instead of growing with the family.

Senator Darneille summed up the hard budget week: This is not the final budget and not the final product. I am counting on my former colleagues in the House of Representatives to have compassion for the least among us. I am counting on them to correct the wrongs that were included in this budget and am counting on them to stand up for women, children, the vulnerable, and the disabled in all our communities.

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The Time for Action is Now

Budget writers and leaders in the Majority Coalition Caucus have been characterizing the budget as “protecting the most vulnerable” and as “what Washington wants.” Help us tell your lawmakers that this budget isn’t what you want and that a 52% cut to programs that prevent and end homelessness is far from protecting the most vulnerable. Click here to quickly and easily send a message to your legislators in both houses that this budget is not what Washington wants. 

And if you are one of the many who have already taken action with our alert, please click here to urge others to join you by sending them the above link. Action this week couldn’t be more critical. 

Voting Yea:  Senators Bailey, Baumgartner, Becker, Benton, Braun, Brown, Dammeier, Eide, Ericksen, Fain, Fraser, Hargrove, Hatfield, Hewitt, Hill, Hobbs, Holmquist Newbry, Honeyford, King, Litzow, Mullet, Nelson, Parlette, Pearson, Rivers, Roach, Schoesler, Sheldon, Smith, and Tom
Voting Nay:  Senators Billig, Chase, Cleveland, Conway, Darneille, Frockt, Harper, Hasegawa, Keiser, Kline, Kohl-Welles, McAuliffe, Murray, Padden, Ranker, Rolfes, Schlicher, and Shin
Absent:  n/a
Excused:  Senator Carrell

The Fair Tenant Screening Act Advances

The budget release shadowed out the movement that the Fair Tenant Screening Act made last week. SSB 5568 was voted unanimously out of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning, clearing last week’s policy deadline with just one day to spare. We appreciated the efforts of Representatives Jamie Pedersen (43rd-Seattle) and Steve O’Ban (28th-Pierce County) to strengthen the bill by adding a penalty if a screening company violated it. In the end, no amendment was added to the bill in order to ensure that it wouldn’t get killed in the Senate. It is now in House Rules Committee and needs to be voted on the House Floor by Wednesday, April 17 in order to make its way to the Governor for signature. Stay tuned for an action request if it looks like anything threatens it from proceeding to the next step.

Housing Alliance in the News

Last Tuesday, we also held a safety net press conference with our friends at the Statewide Poverty Action Network to highlight the importance of Housing and Essential Needs program; the Aged, Blind, and Disabled program; the Housing Trust Fund (HTF); TANF; and the Washington Families Fund (WFF). Speakers shared how important these programs have been for themselves and their families and how the programs successfully transitioned them out of homelessness. The Olympian covered the press conference with this detailed article here.

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Our State's Communities Threatened Further by Federal Cuts

Lastly, as the intensity and urgency of the fight to fund state homelessness programs grows, the impacts of federal cuts are becoming clearer. For a new analysis of how sequestration is going to result in more homelessness and poverty, see the newest article in The Nation’s "Week in Poverty" series, an interview with Doug Rice from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It provides a stark perspective on how critical it is that our state not add more cuts on top of the deep ones sequestration is already bringing.

As our state and federal elected officials engage in budget debates, it is critical that we continue to join together. Over the last week, over 1,400 messages were sent to state elected officials. We need you to keep the pressure up. Our advocacy is the only thing that will ensure that we end the session with the resources our state needs to continue making progress at preventing and ending homelessness and eliminating poverty. Please stay tuned for timely updates and opportunities to speak up.