Create Urgently Needed Housing
Continue to Fund the Washington State Housing Trust Fund
Affordable housing is the essential, stable base from which families and individuals grow and thrive. Education, jobs, and health care depend on stable housing. The Housing Trust Fund supports all types of affordable housing and leverages four times its funding from other public, private and philanthropic sources. The last two sessions have, however, seen both cuts and targeting that have drastically reduced the production of housing to the end homelessness. We need recognize the number of projects in the pipeline that need this last piece to succeed and fund it to the maximum extent feasible.

Don’t Further Cut Safety Net Programs
Preserve and Strengthen the Housing and Essential Needs Program
In 2011 the Disability Lifeline (DL) Program was dissolved. To replace a small portion of the available services this program offered, three new programs were developed through HB 2082. The Housing and Essential Needs Program, one of the three, was created to provide housing and essential needs assistance to people previously receiving cash assistance through DL. The total investment in this population dropped from $168 million per biennium to $64 million per biennium and then suffered a further cut of $5 million. The program represents an extremely important investment in stability for these households. As this program is currently funded through general fund dollars it is at risk of cancelation due to drops in revenues. Even as we work to make it as efficient as possible, we must ensure that it does not become yet another cut in the safety net. We also need to be very alert to potential reductions or eliminations in other programs, such as COPES, the loss of which would force people into instability and homelessness.

Continue to Fund the Washington Families Fund
Continue support for one of our most effective public-private partnerships
Since 2004, the Washington Families Fund has funded and promoted best practices for ending homelessness through innovative, effective program models that stabilize homeless families by pairing support services with housing. It should be funded with an additional $6 million to expand upon this success by addressing other barriers to housing stability for vulnerable families. The Washington Families Fund also targets systems change to end family homelessness. Through the implementation of proven best practices such as Coordinated Entry – improving and streamlining access to services; Economic Opportunity – achieving long-term stability with educational and workforce development opportunities; and Tailored Services – creating flexible and coordinated support that efficiently meets the specific needs of families, we’re transforming the ways communities in Washington state work to end homelessness.

Prevent Youth Homelessness
Fund Expansion of Extended Foster Care (Foster Care to 21)
CEH is instituting important and far-reaching changes in our programs serving youth and young adults, including a greater emphasis on prevention and the creation of coordinated engagement and entry, as well as ongoing planning for a complete system review. As we do that work, we are constantly reminded of the problems created when youth in foster care “age out” at 18. Encouraged by the Federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 we have been working steadily to increase the number of foster youth receiving supports through the age of 21.
Since 2006, we have made strong efforts to reduce the number of youth aging out of foster care without a plan for safe housing. In 2011, Washington State opted in to the federal Fostering Connections Act, resulting in an entitlement for youth turning 18 without a high school diploma or GED to remain in care until they turn 21. In 2012 the legislature added another eligible population (per the Fostering Connections Act), now allowing youth who are in a post-secondary program to stay in care. While these have been great steps forward, we must now cover the 3 remaining eligible populations -- youth with a temporary disability, youth working 20 hours a week or more, and youth addressing a barrier to work. The state receives a 50% match for any group that is covered by the Fostering Connections Act.

Reinstate 72-Hour Notification for Youth Shelters
Since 2010, youth shelters have had up to 72 hours to notify the parents of unaccompanied minors entering their shelter. The extended notification period has made it possible for shelters to keep youth safe while supporting family reconciliation and reunification. This policy has expired, returning to an eight-hour notification, which can be too short a time for shelters to engage youth and often drives youth away, putting their health and safety at risk. Youth and families often need more than eight hours to resolve conflicts and safely reunify, and shelters need every tool available in order to ensure unaccompanied minors have a safe and stable place to stay in times of crisis. We must permanently reinstate the 72-hour notification for youth shelters to protect youth & families.

Use the Opportunity of Health Care Reform to Prevent and End Homelessness – While Driving Down Health Care Costs
Expand the Medicaid program, assure effective care coordination for homeless people, and promote permanent supportive housing as a key strategy to reducing healthcare costs.
Poor health, and lack of health insurance, is a key driver of homelessness. The Affordable Care Act presents a landmark opportunity to prevent and end homelessness through three key strategies. First, expansion of the Medicaid program would provide coverage and access to over 7,000 uninsured homeless adults in King County to medical and behavioral health services, prevent conditions from worsening and reduce costly visits to emergency departments and hospital stays. Second, as the state turns to managed care companies and new Medicaid State Plan options to test models of care coordination and integrated care for Medicaid beneficiaries, these models need to be designed to work for homeless people, one of our most needy and costly groups of Medicaid beneficiaries. Third, Medicaid funding models should support medical and behavioral health services provided in permanent supportive housing. King County has been one of the nation’s leaders in showing that supportive housing reduces health care costs dramatically, particularly for chronically homeless disabled adults - yet Washington’s Medicaid program has not yet incorporated strategies that support the financing of this essential service. Washington State has the opportunity to follow the leads of New York and Massachusetts in making supportive housing an integral part of health care reform.

Other Advocacy Opportunities

Washington State alerts

• Washington Low Income Housing Alliance

National alerts

• National Alliance to End Homelessness (external)
  (To sign up click on “Take Action” and then “Join our network.)

Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day

To get involved, visit the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance website.