Dear Maureen,

Our state lawmakers are making decisions about the budget as you’re reading this, and we need them to know that people all across Washington expect them to be bold in solving our state’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis. The decisions they’re making this week and next could determine whether we make progress toward ensuring that everyone in Washington has a safe, affordable place to live. The alternative is that we maintain the status quo while Washington families continue to struggle to afford a home and thousands of our neighbors live without any home at all.

Will you add your name to our sign on letter calling on lawmakers to invest in affordable homes, foreclosure and eviction prevention, and other solutions to homelessness? You can sign on as an organization, an individual, or both. 

Please sign on by 5pm this Friday and share it as widely as possible so that we can make a bold statement when we send it to legislators this weekend.

Here’s what we are advocating for in the state budget:

• $500 million in the Capital Budget to build affordable homes and quickly purchase existing buildings for permanent and emergency housing;

• $4.5 million for foreclosure prevention; 

• $1.3 million to address the shortfall for tenants’ right to counsel in eviction court and $2 million in pre-eviction legal civil aid to keep people out of eviction court; 

• Increasing the Aged, Blind, and Disability (ABD) cash grant from $197/month to $417;  

• $78 million in the operating budget to address the critical workforce challenges that our permanent supportive housing providers and homeless service providers are facing. 

• Enabling the Health Care Authority to continue the Foundational Community Supports that funds services in permanent supportive housing.

Thank you for joining us!
 

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