The number is staggering: 4,505. That is how many people were counted surviving outside in King County in the early morning hours of Jan. 29. This number does not take into account the thousands more who stayed in shelters, slept on couches or were otherwise hidden from sight.
This emergency has been brewing for years as cut after cut has been made to state and federal housing programs. These cuts have left local communities operating in crisis mode, meeting immediate needs as best they can but unable to make progress on ending homelessness, especially now, as we watch rents rise so dramatically.
A critical part of the solution to this emergency is to create many more affordable homes by using public funds to build and preserve those homes. That’s why we fight for the Housing Trust Fund every year and why the Seattle Housing Levy is so important. But this crisis must be tackled from many angles, including eliminating unnecessary barriers to housing in the private market.
The Washington State Legislature has before it two bills that address the needs of thousands of Washington residents who are struggling to find a safe, healthy, affordable home, without costing the state any money at all.
Right now, in most places in Washington, it is perfectly legal for landlords to refuse to rent to potential tenants, simply because they pay all or part of their rent with a housing subsidy. This includes federal Housing Choice (Section 8) vouchers, social security, veterans benefits and other legal sources of supplemental income. Seattle is one of several cities where discrimination based on use of a Housing Choice voucher is illegal, but even here other subsidies can be refused. This results in too many people who count on this assistance facing long searches for a home, despite having resources sufficient to cover the cost of rent. It creates or prolongs homelessness for some, and in the worst cases, people run out of the time allotted to use their voucher and lose their subsidy altogether.
If passed, House Bill 1565, (sponsored by Rep. Timm Ormsby D-Spokane) would prevent landlords from discriminating against a prospective tenant based solely on their use of a subsidy to cover rent. The legislation would provide people who receive supplemental income a fair shot at securing a home. We urge the Legislature to bring this bill to a vote.
Another way to eliminate housing barriers would be to pass House Bill 2811, sponsored by Rep. Brady Walkinshaw, D-Seattle, and Senate Bill 6413, Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah. These bills make progress on reducing the high cost of repeated tenant screening reports by defining what comprehensive, reusable screening reports are, and requiring landlords to advertise if they accept those reports. These bills also solve the problem of all evictions proceedings being reported as equal, so that when a tenant prevails in court or has been wrongly named, the court has the ability to ensure that it will no longer show up on their report as an eviction. It is rare that tenant advocates and landlord lobbyists to agree on a solution, but they did on these bills, and the legislature should seize this opportunity and pass these bills.
Addressing the crisis of homelessness should be one of the Legislature’s top priorities. There is no single fix — it is a complex problem needing solutions from all sides. Fortunately, legislators have multiple solutions before them. Some of those solutions require money for affordable housing and safety net services. The Legislature should make those investments; they’ll pay off in the long run. Others are policy changes with little or no cost to the state. There is no reason the Legislature should hesitate to enact those solutions this year. It won’t end homelessness but it will provide more options for some of the 4,505 people in King County currently living outside, and it will prevent others from joining their ranks for next year’s count.
Rachael Myers serves as executive director for the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, a statewide advocacy organization working to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live in a safe, healthy, affordable home. Prior to joining the Housing Alliance, Rachael did organizing and advocacy with Real Change. She buys several papers each week and reads every issue cover to cover.
This column has been updated since it's print date.