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Go Slow
Legislature starts with long list of requests from groups
By CYDNEY GILLIS
Staff Reporter
“You can’t always get what you want.”
That’s the warning being raised by some housing and human services
advocates heading into the 2007 legislative session that starts next
week. The state may be flush with revenue now, says Nancy Amidei, who
follows state bills for the newsletter PolicyWatch, but the good times
are only expected to last one year.
As a result, says Amidei, an instructor at the University of Washington
School of Social Work, legislators aren’t going to want to provide
new funding for programs past 2007.
“Some people talk about the fact that there are so many more Democrats
in the House and Senate — it’s almost two to one —
as if everything is going to be a slam dunk. It isn’t,”
Amidei says. “It isn’t going to be possible to do everything
on everyone’s wish list.”
The wish list includes a combined legislative agenda that a number of
groups are backing to support affordable housing and ending homelessness.
The agenda includes raising more funding for each county’s 10-Year
Plan to End Homelessness, increasing the Housing Trust Fund, providing
$15 million more in rental assistance for homeless families, and ensuring
adequate discharge planning for individuals leaving foster care, jail,
or mental wards.
To provide more money for the 10-Year Plans, Rep. Mark Miloscia (D-Federal
Way) plans to introduce a bill that would allow counties to double the
current surcharge of $10 on document recording fees, which a county
typically charges in property transactions.
Though the $10 surcharge is fairly new (the Legislature passed it in
2005 to fund the Homelessness and Housing Assistance Act), Corine Knudsen,
director of the Washington State Coalition for the Homeless, says she
doesn’t see major opposition to allowing a $20 fee.
“My sense is there’s a lot of support at the local level,”
Knudsen says. “Every time someone records a document, there’s
this extra surcharge, but it isn’t a huge impact for any one person.”
She is less optimistic about getting the Legislature to increase the
state’s Transitional Housing Operating and Rental fund from today’s
$5 million to $15 million. In addition to providing extra cash to help
families get into housing, the bill would broaden the program to help
youth and single individuals.
The large request for the Housing Trust Fund, the state’s primary
tool for making grants to build homes for low-income families, could
also be a long shot.
The coalition and its supporters want to add $263 million to today’s
$100 million fund, but Tony Lee, advocacy director for Solid Ground
— the new name of the Fremont Public Association —says that
will be tough given the starting point of negotations: In the budget
proposal released Dec. 19, Gov. Chris Gregoire called for only $40 million
more for the trust fund.
The Washington Low Income Housing Alliance is pushing for a state law
to outlaw zoning that discriminates against building affordable housing.
It’s also seeking $16 million to help save low-income mobile home
parks, and backs a proposed amendment that would strengthen the Manufactured/
Mobile Home Landlord Act.
To keep landlords from discriminating against the elderly or disabled,
the Housing Alliance and the Tenants Union are lobbying to get new legislation
that would outlaw making rental decisions based on a person’s
source of income, be it Social Security or welfare.
Such recipients are currently protected in Seattle, Bellevue and unincorporated
King County, but not statewide, says Michele Thomas of the Tenants Union.
For families in need, says Solid Ground’s Tony Lee, new federal
regulations will make it tougher to collect welfare under the WorkFirst
program’s job requirements, something Solid Ground hopes the Legislature
will respond to by providing state funding to those who are, in fact,
working to educate themselves or get a job.
Starting in March, the governor plans to kick non-compliant families
off welfare altogether, as opposed to reducing their monthly grant,
which is the state’s current form of sanction.
The governor’s budget already includes new funding for a $100-a-month
stipend that former welfare recipients would get for six months after
getting a job. For those still on the rolls, advocates are seeking a
three percent increase in both the welfare grant and the state’s
General Assistance grant for unemployed individuals (GA-U).
The typical welfare grant for a family of two is $440, a figure that
hasn’t budged since 1993, says welfare rights organizer Jean Colman.
In her budget proposal, Gov. Gregoire took a step closer to her goal
of providing health care for all of Washington’s low-income children
by covering 32,000 more kids under a state plan. Children’s advocates
are also working for legislation to provide state health coverage for
foster children up to the age of 21, increase day-care reimbursements
and school-lunch funding, and form a state commission to examine why
high numbers of Black and Native American children end up in foster
care for extended periods.
Among bills that will be reintroduced this year, a bid to cap the sky-high
interest rates of payday lenders will be back, and labor advocates plan
a renewed push to create a paid family leave program and force employers
of 1,000 or more to contribute 9 percent of their payroll to health
benefits for workers — a new and expanded version of last year’s
so-called Wal-Mart bill.
[Bills]
Here’s a brief rundown of goals from human service advocates active
in Olympia during the legislative session:
Children: Expand health coverage, reduce racial disproportionality
Families: Create paid family leave program
Finances: Cap interest on payday loans
Health care: Force large employers to contribute
Housing: Fund 10-Year Plans, increase the Housing Trust Fund
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