On February 24th, 560 housing and homeless advocates gathered in Olympia to rally around housing issues, meet with legislators, and make our voices heard. The Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, along with the Washington State Coalition for the Homeless, the Housing Development Consortium, Common Ground, the Tenants Union, Building Changes, and many other organizations statewide brought together low-income and homeless folks, program staff, and other concerned citizens from every walk of life. Advocates from almost every district in the state were ready to meet with their legislators and express why housing matters.

The energy was high in the United Churches building where the group heard speeches by WLIHA lobbyist Nick Federici, advocacy educator Nancy Amidei, and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (D-3rd District). Michele Thomas of the Tenants Union moderated a panel of homeless and formerly homeless people who shared about how housing programs were important to their lives. By the time we were scheduled to march to the Capitol for legislator meetings, we were ready to state the case for housing programs.

The Alliance's main priorities in this session are to maintain the Housing Trust Fund, which was cut from $200 million to $100 million in the Governor's budget, and to protect the General Assistance-Unemployable program, which was eliminated entirely. Senator Lisa Brown spoke eloquently to the issue:

The legislator meetings were interesting and informative. In two of the meetings I attended, clients of housing programs spoke up and shared their stories about how GA-U and employment programs provided a crucial safety net for them during difficult times. In a particularly moving statement to Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-37th District), Compass Center resident, Donnie Love (shown at right in photo above), said, "The General Assistance-Unemployable program not only changed my life, it saved my life."

While the legislators I met with seemed open to the idea of maintaining the Housing Trust Fund, overall the tone in Olympia is one of anxiety as the economic downturn continues to drain money from all available sources of revenue. Since Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day took place, Senator Brown has publicly addressed the issue of taxes as a possible solution to the budget crisis, but no official statement or referendum has yet been issued. The state revenue forecast, due out on March 19th is not expected to ease the state's budgetary woes.