With less than two weeks to go in this year’s regular legislative session, a measure concerning housing vouchers for offenders is on track to become law thanks to the approval it received Tuesday from the House of Representatives.
Senate Bill 5105 outlines the conditions to which the state Department of Corrections must adhere when issuing housing vouchers to offenders, such as maintaining a list of approved housing providers, requiring transitional support, working with communities for siting, and allowing communities to request ineffective or unresponsive providers be removed from the program. A companion bill was co-sponsored by Reps. Zeiger and Morrell on the House side.
(L to R) Reps. Hans Zeiger and Dawn Morrell, Sen. Bruce Dammeier
“I count this bill as a victory – not only for the good people of the 25th District, but for the entire state of Washington,” said Dammeier, R-Puyallup. “The measure will increase transparency, require community input and support local jurisdictions – and was backed with the support of the entire 25th District delegation and many from our community.”
“The safety of our children should never be a partisan issue,” said Rep. Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup. “I was proud to work with Senator Dammeier and Representative Zeiger to turn input from my neighbors into a common-sense reform that will help to ensure the safety of not only our community – but communities across our state.”
“This bill will give Puyallup more options for keeping our neighborhoods safe,” said Rep. Hans Zeiger, R-Puyallup. “I am grateful for people from the Shaw Road neighborhood who made this bill a reality. We couldn’t have done it without Julie Door – the most effective citizen lobbyist I have known.”