The legislature still hasn’t passed a capital budget, which means there is still no assured money in the Housing Trust Fund to build affordable homes. This, despite the application deadline for Low Income Housing Tax Credit funding, which came and went at 5pm on January 17.

Reiny Cohen, Director of Communications

Every other Friday during the legislative session, all affordable housing and homelessness advocates are invited to join us for a conference call and webinar to hear the latest updates from Olympia! Our policy team will report back on on the progress of our lead policy priorities, as well as bills from our partner organizations that we are supporting.

These calls are designed to:

Rachael Myers, Executive Director

ChrisTiana ObeySumner, Affordable Housing and Homelessness Advocate

November 9, the day after the 2016 general election, re-ignited something within my soul. A drive for justice, equity, and bringing the voices of those who are most affected by the failures in our system to the forefront.

Reiny Cohen, Director of Communications

Hi! We’re trying something new here at our blog, and I hope you like it. We want to start using this space to highlight some of the great work that organizations are doing around the state to combat homelessness, and grow the movement for safe, healthy, affordable homes for everyone in Washington. And for this first installment, we’re looking at Thurston County.

Washington Low Income Housing Alliance

Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

There’s no way to sugar coat this, so I’m not going to. We are extremely disappointed in the lack of progress on solutions to the affordable housing and homelessness crisis.

Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

Last week brought the final cutoff of the regular legislative session. By April 12, all bills had to clear the floor of the opposite house from which they originated. As often discussed in these blog posts, bills that are “NTIB”, necessary to implement the budget, are not subject to these cutoffs. House Bill 1570/Macri, the Bringing Washington Home Act, is considered NTIB and is still alive despite not moving off of the House floor yet.

Kirk McClain, Emerging Advocates Program