Putting people first by housing people first

A common misconception about homelessness is that there is a subset of people who choose to be homeless, or choose to refuse services to help them exit homelessness.  The reality is that the intersecting problems of homelessness, mental health, and substance use disorder means that some people do not qualify for homelessness services because of their co-occurring conditions. It is these difficult-to-house people who are best served by the emerging gold standard in solutions to chronic homelessness, mental health, and substance use disorder—permanent supportive housing. Once someone living unsheltered sees that permanent supportive housing offers freedom and dignity, they often want in.

Permanent supportive housing provides eligible clients a permanent housing subsidy and all the services they’ll need to be successful over the long term—all within the same building. These services can include case management, medication reminders, employment assistance, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, meals, and even visits by nurses, doctors, and dentists. While these services are all optional for residents, they are so successful there’s a backlog of people who want to get off the streets and live in these communities. The House Democrats’ operating and capital budgets work in tandem to expand this model. Our capital budget invests in constructing permanent supportive housing and our operating budget invests in the services provided in these facilities. As our budget process continues, I will advocate to protect these investments for our community.

Taking mental health treatment to the streets

Jails and prisons aren’t set up to serve as mental health hospitals or drug rehabilitation centers. Yet law enforcement officers continually respond to calls involving people who are suffering from mental illness or addiction. Jail is incredibly expensive and doesn’t address the root cause of their problem.

House Bill 1767, which passed the House with bipartisan support, builds on existing law that puts mental health professionals in the field with patrol officers. The idea is to get people treatment so they don’t continue to needlessly cycle through the criminal justice system.  This reform will prevent crime and get people the treatment they need.

State budget surplus meets education ‘bow wave’

Spending decisions in previous legislative sessions have impacts on future budgets, also known as a “bow wave.” That’s the case with money the bipartisan school funding agreement appropriated in 2017, and additional funds appropriated last year to amply fund K-12 schools. The Legislature has to keep funding schools each year – in other words, it’s not a one-time expenditure.

The funding increase from last year means an additional $4.2 billion is needed to maintain that level of spending in this next two-year budget. You may have heard that the state has billions in surplus funds. It does. But that surplus is just about equal to the additional $4.2 billion in education funding needs, which wipes out the surplus (this was before the most recent revenue forecast, which added around $500 million for the two-year budget). If we want to improve our mental health system so that our friends and family members get help in a crisis; or improve special education programs allowing ALL kids to thrive; or make higher education more accessible and affordable, we have to figure out a way to pay for these investments. I’m sure funding will be a hot topic until session adjourns on April 28. If we’re going to raise more money, I say let’s NOT increase the burden on low- and middle-income families and ask the very wealthy to also invest in our communities. Did you know the poorest people in the state pay six times more as a percent of their income than the richest people do? That doesn’t make sense! My goal for any funding ideas would be this: If you’re not a multimillionaire and you don’t own a mansion, you won’t see any tax increases – in fact, you might see a drop in some taxes. I’ll have more on this in the upcoming weeks so stay tuned.

We passed the operating and transportation budgets out of the House last week and we will bring the capital budget up for a vote on the Floor later today. The Senate is going through the same process. Once we receive their three budgets and they receive ours we’ll start negotiations on the differences until we reach an agreement and send three budgets we can all live with to the governor’s desk.

As always, I greatly appreciate your interest in what I’m doing in Olympia. Your input is very important to me, so please let me know what you think — I welcome all feedback.

If you need more information on any of the issues discussed here, or on any other legislative matter, please don’t hesitate to contact my office.

Sincerely,