For residents, housing backed by state funding can be life-changing
When Tracy Williams moved into a tiny home village almost three years ago, she brought with her two bins of clothes and a TV. At the time, it was all she had. Williams had spent two years living in her car and on the couches of friends and family. “I was starting all over,” she said. A year-and-a-half later, Williams, now 56, moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Seattle’s Othello neighborhood at George Fleming Place, a complex named after the state senator who sponsored the bill to create the state’s Housing Trust Fund. Since it was formed in 1986, the Housing Trust Fund has helped pay for about 60,000 units of housing, with $1.5 billion of public investment. This year, the program saw its biggest-ever surge in funding with lawmakers setting aside $400 million for it over the next two years, a roughly 40% increase over the last budget cycle. Continue reading at WA State Standard. (Laurel Demkovich)

Washington’s supply of opioid meds is well above average, study finds
Access to medications for opioid use disorder can be much harder to find in some states than others, a recent survey found. But Washington has a better supply than most. Why it matters: The opioid epidemic has had an enormous human toll, with nearly 80,000 reported opioid-involved drug overdose deaths in the U.S. last year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But federal data shows only slightly more than one in 10 people with opioid use disorder receive medication for it. Driving the news: Nationally, 57.9% of more than 5,200 pharmacies in 32 states reported having Suboxone, which contains buprenorphine and naloxone, in stock. In Washington, 146 out of 174 pharmacies, or 83.9%, reported having buprenorphine, per the study. By contrast, only 37%, or 281 of 757, pharmacies in Florida, reported having stock on hand. Continue reading at Axios. (Shoshana Gordon)

WA gas prices now highest in U.S.; some experts point to new climate legislation
Washington unseated California this week as the state with the most expensive gasoline. Experts say Washington’s price surge is linked to the state’s latest, most ambitious efforts to battle climate change, specifically the new carbon-pricing program launched this year that charges businesses for the greenhouse gases they emit. The first two quarterly auctions of emission allowances raked in more than $850 million. Now oil companies are choosing to pass on the compliance fees, the experts say. Those costs add up to about 50 cents per gallon for the consumer. Gov. Jay Inslee’s office said it is too soon to accurately assess the price impact of the state’s climate policies. “No one would be surprised, however, if oil companies experiencing record profits are choosing to pass their compliance costs to customers — sometimes even for fuels that are exempt under the law,” said Jaime Smith, Inslee’s executive director of communications, in a written statement.. Continue reading at Seattle Times. (Greg Gilbert)