Homelessness was a budget focus this year

Much of the attention this session on the interrelated issues of homelessness and affordable housing went to the housing side of the coin. However, the budget provided significant revenue for homelessness response. Two policy bills of note that dealt more directly with homelessness were debated, and one passed.

HB 1754 was the continuation of a long-running effort by certain faith community advocates to restrict the ability of cities and counties to regulate the hosting of homeless encampments by religious institutions. This year it finally passed, with some significant limitations for city regulatory authority and one big bright side. The new law will require cities to allow these hostings to last for at least six months, with a maximum required break of three months between hostings. Over the last several years, cities that had worked with their local faith communities to establish ordinances that didn’t fit with the particulars of this bill were concerned that all that local effort would be overturned. This year the proposal included a significant grandfathering element that reduced a lot of those concerns. For cities that have ordinances on this matter before the effective date of the bill, those ordinances may be kept in place and updated, with few exceptions.

The other major bill related specifically to homelessness was legislation requested by the Governor. HB 2649 would have required a new planning effort between cities and counties to identify gaps in temporary shelter needs and work together to identify capacity to fill those gaps. There were several technical challenges with the way the bill was originally drafted and although there were efforts to fix it in a way that all parties could support, the bill failed to pass an early deadline and those efforts stopped.

On the budget front, the Legislature made $160 million investments in affordable housing and homelessness. For a supplemental budget (and really for any budget) this is a very significant level of investment. Some highlights include:

• $60 million for competitive grants for cities and counties for temporary local shelter capacity
• $40 million in the Housing Trust Fund from the operating budget
• $15 million ongoing annual increase for the Housing and Essential Needs (HEN) program that provides people who are too disabled to work with housing and other essential needs
• $15 million for ongoing annual operations and maintenance funding for Permanent Supportive Housing
• $10 million for preservation of affordable multifamily housing
• $5 million for housing preservation grants