Ben Miksch, Affordable Housing Policy and Advocacy Specialist

ESHB 2368 – the bill to remove the sunset on the Homeless Housing Assistance Surcharge (a.k.a. document recording fees) – is currently sitting in the Senate Financial Institutions, Housing & Insurance Committee awaiting a hearing. A number of hurdles still stand in the way of Governor Jay Inslee signing the legislation into law. And the amount of time we have to clear those hurdles is shrinking quickly.

Housing advocates all over the state are doing a great job talking to legislators about the importance of preventing the sunsets of over 60% of funding for homeless housing in every county. You’ve also been great at educating lawmakers about how the cuts would shut the doors at emergency cold weather drop-in centers, domestic violence shelters, housing for homeless youth, and effective, life-saving programs throughout the state. But a lot of legislators have responded with something along these lines:

"This is a really important issue and I support it. But the sunset isn’t until July 2015. Can’t we wait until next year?”

That’s not an unreasonable question if you’re working off of a timeline that looks a little like this:

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But that timeline isn’t the whole picture. The truth is if ESHB 2368 isn't passed this year, programs will have to implement cuts before the legislature has a chance to pass a bill in 2015.

Homeless Housing Assistance Surcharge revenues are awarded on a competitive basis. The next funding rounds will begin to take place this fall (2014) in most counties. Even if passing a bill in the 2015 Legislative Session was a sure thing, counties aren't able to contract for services based on what the law might be. Funding projections must be based on current law and that means a cut of $10 on July 2015 and of another $20 in July 2017.

That means this fall, local communities will have to start preparing for cuts to be implemented in early 2015.

This is what the timeline really looks like:

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The legislature must act now if they want to prevent vulnerable populations like veterans, people living with mental illness, domestic violence survivors, homeless families, and others from being impacted by those cuts.

Take action! Tell your legislators ESHB 2368 can’t wait until next year!

If you need to see the numbers on how badly the cuts will be for state and county homelessness funding, check out this handout here that also summarizes the urgency to get ESHB 2368 passed this session.

The Housing Alliance is circulating a sample letter for organizations to fill out to send to their legislators. We don’t have a lot of time on this! If your organization is willing to fill out a letter, especially if your organization uses these fees to provide services to your community, please contact me at benm(at)wliha(dot)org as soon as you can.

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CORRECTION: The first timeline had incorrect years listed. They are correct now.