--- Forwarded Message -----

From: "Jamala Henderson, Housing Alliance" <info@wliha.org>

Cc:

Sent: Mon, Jan 20, 2020 at 12:57 PM

Subject: Weekly Legislative Update: Aaaaand we"re off!

“Homelessness and affordable housing are top of mind for lawmakers - it appears that lawmakers heard the results of the Elway poll loud and clear.” – Michele Thomas, Policy and Advocacy Director Dear Jeremy, Guess what? Everyone wants to talk to the Housing Alliance! Affordable housing and homelessness issues are very much at the forefront this year with many lawmakers seeking out the Housing Alliance for our input on the many important issues dealing with homelessness and housing instability. According to our fearless Policy and Advocacy Director Michele Thomas, “Our legislative priorities are being met with a lot of interest. As one person said to me, if you have a concern look at the Housing Alliance agenda because it addresses it.” But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot of work to do to get these bills passed. The polls are in. Housing and homelessness issues remain the most urgent policy priorities for us to address statewide. A recent Crosscut/Elway poll found that that Washington voters rank homelessness as the number one issue for lawmakers to tackle. Based on his budget proposal, which includes unprecedented funding to reduce homelessness, Governor Inslee seems to agree. Do you agree too? It is critical that your legislators hear from you. If you haven’t yet responded to our action alert from last week, it’s not too late: Make sure your lawmakers know that you want them to prioritize investments in homelessness and housing stability! Click to email your lawmakers! Week One of the Legislative Session: On day one of session, we partnered with Pioneer Human Services and Columbia Legal Services to present an educational panel on housing justice for people with a prior criminal history. Check out our FB Live "Barred from Housing" panel event here! (Please note that we KNOW the audio was pretty terrible. We’re working to ensure that our next educational panel will have much better audio. Hey, we all live and learn!)   Meanwhile, there was no slow start to this session. In the first week, Michele testified in several committee meetings about on our legislative priorities. You can check them out on TVW at any time:     House Capital Budget meeting Michele at 43:45 House Appropriations Committee Meeting Michele at 1:59:53 Senate Ways & Means Committee Michele at 2:41:08   Additionally, RAP steering committee member and Housing Alliance board member Mindy Woods came down to share her story on receiving 14-day pay or vacate notices even though her landlord knows that her check consistently comes on the third of each month. And Charlie from the Office of Rural and Farmworker Housing came all the way from Yakima to testify on the need to invest state Capital Budget dollars into the preservation of rural affordable housing, while Christine and Nicholas provided stellar testimony in support of the Governor’s proposal to invest a new $26 million into Housing and Essential Needs rental assistance, and Earl Hall from RAP took the bus from Snohomish county on a freezing day to weigh in with his support for the Governor’s proposed homelessness investments. Nonprofit developers Susan Boyd, Trudy Soucoup, and  Paul Purcell testified on SB 6232 to fix a property tax deduction that is critical for affordable housing. There was so much stellar testimony, it made for a fantastic week of housing voices! ___________________________________________________________________________ UPDATE on Key Priorities (Full Legislative Agenda here) HB 2453: Requiring a legitimate business reason for a landlord to evict a tenant (Just Cause). Taking out the arbitrary nature and lack of transparency in ending a tenancy closes a loophole in fair housing protections and reduces opportunities for racial and other forms of discrimination. Representative Nicole Macri has done a lot of coalition building since last session to build support and the bill has a hearing Friday January 24 at 10am, in the House Committee on Civil Rights & Judiciary. HB 2634 & SB 6366: Usually referred to as REET (real estate excise tax), this is a tax paid by the seller of a property. These bills give the seller an exemption from the REET if they sell the property to a non-profit or public housing authority who intends to use it for affordable housing. The goal of this bill is to give non-profits and housing authorities a better chance to compete with for-profit developers, who often show up cash in hand, in acquiring property. The Senate bill has a hearing January 20 at 1:30, in the Senate Committee on Housing Stability & Affordability. SB 6232/ HB 2384: Nonprofit affordable housing is currently granted a property tax exemption under certain circumstances, but it needs to be adjusted to work with the needs of today’s affordable housing providers. This bill would expand the exemption to apply to more low-income housing properties and create a safe harbor preventing housing providers from being liable for the tax when their residents increase their incomes. The Senate version was heard last week and HB 2384 will be heard on Tuesday January 21 at 8am, in the House Committee on Finance. HB 1590/ SB 6126: These bills would allow jurisdictions to adopt the local sales tax option for affordable housing with a vote of their governing body, instead of spending time and money to pass it at the ballot. SB 6126 was heard on the second day of session! Budget Priorities: In addition to the bills we’re supporting, we have several budget priorities, or budget “asks”. Eliminating the ABD “shelter penalty.” This penalty reduces the ABD cash grant from $197 per month to $120 per month if an individual is determined not to have housing costs. Advocacy from the Housing Alliance brought this to Governor Inslee’s attention, and he included this in his 2020 budget proposal, but the Legislature still needs to agree. $4 million for foreclosure counselors: Foreclosure counseling dollars have dwindled significantly the last few years. In order to help protect homeowners from losing their homes through foreclosure, we’re asking the legislature to include $4 million in the Operating Budget for foreclosure counseling. We’re supporting Representative Macri’s proposal for $5 million to create a pilot program to provide rental assistance to disabled adults and seniors to prevent homelessness. We’re asking the Legislature to include $10 million for the Housing Trust Fund to preserve affordable housing in order to prevent it from being sold on the for-profit market where its affordable restrictions will be lost. Michele testified in support of this request on the first day of session. Important Dates!  Register for Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day: Advocacy Day is coming up on February 3. Join 600 people from all across the state in Olympia to tell your legislators that they can’t go home until they address the affordable housing and homelessness crisis. We’ll schedule your appointments with your lawmakers, you just need to show up! Register here. Biweekly member calls: Register here for biweekly legislative updates during the session. We will host these calls on Jan. 31, Feb. 14, Feb. 28, and Mar. 13. Affordable Housing Briefing for lawmakers: Tuesday, January 21, 5:45-7:00 pm Join a panel of experts from a range of communities who will provide lawmakers with a comprehensive overview of key issues in affordable housing and solutions to the crisis. We will stream this event via Zoom. Register to attend via phone or computer here.   Best, Jamala   Jamala Henderson Communications Specialist Donate Washington Low Income Housing Alliance 100 West Harrison St. Seattle, Washington 98119 (206) 442-9455 info@wliha.org View this email in your web browser Unsubscribe