Lynn and I attended the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance (WLIHA) annual member meeting yesterday (November 18th), which was a great opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the legislative agenda that Building Changes will be supporting throughout the upcoming 2009 session. It was also instructive to watch the Alliance in action and see how the group gets things done. 

The annual member meeting is a chance for members of the Alliance to approve new or ongoing board members. Megan Hyla, Director of Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs at the King County Housing Authority, has taken on the State Legislative Committee Chair position and led the discussion on the legislative agenda.

There were four lead agenda items on the table, along with a dozen or so "support items," meaning that the Alliance, while not specifically lobbying on these support items, will take a strong stance on them and related issues and possibly offer support in the form of written or in-person testimony if needed.

The lead agenda items were as follows (please note that that there isn't yet detailed information available on exactly how these items will be packaged):

1) Maintain the Housing Trust Fund at $200 million for the 2009-2010 biennium and ensure that housing supported by the fund is well maintained and able to serve our most vulnerable residents, by:

• Increasing funding for the operations and maintenance account that enables the Trust Fund to support housing for homeless and extremely low-income individuals and families; and
• Protecting the State's valuable investment of over $600 million in more than 32,000 housing units by allowing some capital dollars to be used for administering the Trust Fund.

2) Improve access to housing for low-income individuals and families by prohibiting source of income discrimination and ensuring accuracy and fairness in tenant screening reports.

3) Increase homeownership opportunities for low-income families through:

• A Real Estate Excise Tax exemption on homes sold to low-income first-time homebuyers; and
• Expanding notification and counseling for homeowners threatened by foreclosure.

4) Ensure that transit-oriented communities include housing affordable for low-income individuals and families through tools such as incentive zoning, creation of the HEFT affordable housing growth fund, and providing infrastructure funding to support mixed-income residential development.

Items on the "support" list fell into two categories: budget-related and policy-related. The Washington State Coalition for the Homeless (WSCH) is taking the lead on budget-related items, including maintaining biennial funding levels of $10 million for THOR and $10 million for emergency shelter assistance. The Seattle-King County Housing Development Consortium is carrying the final budget-related item, which is to maintain local King County taxes for expiring stadium bonds and utilize a portion of the revenue to developing low‐income housing in King County.

Policy-related support items ranged in widely in topic: WSCH is also leading the charge on requiring state agencies to develop plans to stop discharging people into homelessness, while the Washington State Housing Finance Commission will lobby to increase its debt limit from $5 billion to $7 billion, as well as for employers to provide housing assistance to employees through a state B&O tax credit. Columbia Legal Services is bringing to the table a series of amendments and clarifications related to mobile home owner and tenant rights. There is also a broad support item on the list related to preventing cuts and expanding availability of vital housing and survival services such as Medicaid, General Assistance, TANF, and food assistance programs; it was clarified during yesterday's meeting that this item is simply meant as an indication that if need be, WLIHA can "sign on" as a supporter of any legislation related to preserving or bolstering these programs.

After a lively discussion among the group, the four lead items were approved by consensus, as were the twelve support items.

Lynn captured WLIHA lobbyist Nick Federici on camera addressing the legislative agenda:

 

For more background information about the Alliance and their past work in Olympia, you can see WLIHA's 2008 legislative agenda here.

Save the date: 2009 Homelessness and Housing Advocacy Day, February 24^th. Updates on planning for HHAD coming soon!