Alison Eisinger

An open letter in response to exploitative #BadNews from KOMO/Sinclair

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In response to more propaganda from Sinclair, the worldwide right-wing media group dedicated to sowing division and promoting fringe arguments, we wanted to set the record straight. There’s no “battle” for the soul of anything, save perhaps for a nation that has allowed its housing market to careen out of control and a lack of leadership willing to address it. The causes of homelessness are clear; there is no mystery here. The core drivers of homelessness are economic, not personal. There is a national shortage of 7 million affordable units that has been increasing every year since 2011. The number of rental homes affordable to low- and moderate-income families in King County has decreased by 36,000 in the last ten years. Meanwhile, the region saw the average rent increase by 47% between 2012 and 2017, and the average home price increase by 53%. The loss of private market rental housing has left 41,000 individuals on fixed incomes and families making the minimum wage without an affordable apartment to rent anywhere in King County. Over 150,000 households in the region pay more than a third of their household income – sometimes far more – on housing expenses. So, we should be clear: this is not just about people experiencing homelessness. This crisis is about all of us. Housing is too expensive for all of us. We should also remember that homelessness disproportionately impacts people of color, particularly Black and Native/Indigenous communities. This is no accident. Racism, too, is an economic position. The racial wealth gap, inclusive of earned wages, plays a significant role in who becomes homeless, as does our history of exclusionary zoning and land theft. We should also not deny the reality that there is a crisis of unsheltered homelessness across the country and in King County. For this …

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December 17, 2020 State Legislative Preview Meeting

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Agenda 9:00-9:20             Welcome and Intro to State Legislative Advocacy 9:20-10:05           Legislative Priorities from our Statewide Advocacy Partners 10:05-10:30         Lawmaker Insights with State Senator Patty Kuderer and Representative Nicole Macri 10:30-11:00         Special Musical Guest Reggie Garrett State Legislative Advocacy Basics The first step in advocating on the state level is knowing who represents your community in Olympia. Washington state is divided into 49 legislative districts, which elect one senator to the State Senate and two representatives to the State House. You can use this link to look up your legislators: https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/ To look up your state legislative district and state legislators: Visit app.wa.leg.gov/districtfinder Enter your home address and click “Find My District”. If you do not have a traditional home address, enter a mailing address, or a cross street, shelter address, or park address. This determines who represents you. Make sure that under “District Type”, “Legislative” is selected. This will show you your legislative district (usually a number) and your Washington state senators and representatives. Make a note of your legislative district number. If you haven’t already, rename yourself with your legislative district in front of your name! Make a note of the names of your legislators! Bonus points if you click on your legislators’ names to learn more about them, including what committees they are part of and what bills they’ve sponsored Extra, extra bonus points if you add their contact information to your rolodex! Participating in Virtual Legislative Advocacy With the legislature meeting remotely this year, advocacy will happen remotely as well. Opportunities to connect with lawmakers will happen in the communities we live, which means your program or agency can play an important part in raising the voices of those most impacted by homelessness. We want to give some thought to the questions below. Please reach out to either …

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November 19, 2020 Coalition Membership Meeting

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Meeting Agenda: 9:00 Welcome and Introduction9:05 Annual Subsidized Pass Program9:25 Coalition Member Updates9:35 COVID-19 Update for Service Providers10:00 City of Seattle and King County Budget Advocacy 10:20 Coalition Staff Updates10:25 December Legislative Preview Preview Thank you to everyone who attended our Thursday, November 19 Membership Meeting. A summary of the resources discussed is listed below and is being added to, please email Jason if you have additional materials you wish to share. We hope to see you next month at our Thursday, December 17 Legislative Preview Meeting. Click here to register. Agenda Highlights Subsidized Annual Pass Sound Transit and King County Metro are launching a program to provide ORCA cards to low income public transit riders. This program, once fully implemented, represents the largest expansion in public transit access locally since the creation of the ORCA LIFT program. The Coalition worked alongside our community partners Transportation Choices Coalition, Seattle Transit Riders Union, Puget Sound Sage, OneAmerica and others for years to make this happen, we are thrilled to see this benefit coming to our community. Click here to learn more. In response to a 2019-2020 budget request by King County Council, Metro worked to establish an income-based fare program for those who cannot afford the current reduced fare options. To create an equitable implementation plan, Metro collaborated with a stakeholder advisory group, prioritizing the mobility needs of priority populations, including people of color, low-income residents, limited or non-English speaking communities, and immigrants and refugees. The Subsidized Annual Pass functions like an ORCA LIFT card that can be offered free of charge to qualifying riders. This pass provides pays for 100 percent of the cost to use: King County Metro buses Rapidride Bus Routes Link Light Rail Sounder Commuter Train Seattle Streetcar Seattle Monorail Access Paratransit Via To Transit Sound Transit Express …

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October 15, 2020 General Membership Meeting

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Agenda 9:00 Welcome9:10 Statewide Eviction Moratorium Update9:20 Member Updates9:40 November Ballet Overview10:10 City of Seattle and other King County Advocacy Work10:25 Coalition Staff Updates Agenda Highlights Statewide Eviction Moratorium Update On Thursday October 8, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee announced that the temporary moratorium on evictions will be extended through the end of 2020, with no additional loopholes or exemptions. John Stovall with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance thanked us for the statewide advocacy push that made this possible and encouraged us to send a thank you message to the Governors office using this link. The Housing Alliance also wants to gather stories of people who have faced challenges keeping their housing because of COVID-19. If you or someone you know has a story to share, please consider filling out this form. Health Through Housing Campaign We have a big, exciting opportunity to create emergency homes for 2,000 people experiencing chronic homelessness in our community. On Tuesday October 13, the King County Council voted 8-1 in favor of the Health through Housing proposal. If you’re a King County resident, send a personalized thank you message to your King County Councilmember and Executive Dow Constantine urging them to focus this new one tenth of one cent sales tax revenue on housing people with the lowest incomes, who have disabilities and have been homeless for far too long. Thank you to those of you who took action, please send a follow-up note to ensure that Health through Housing is dedicated to supportive housing with behavioral health services for people at or below 30% AMI. We need to keep a strong focus on making true regional progress on chronic homelessness. Coalition Member Updates  Hopelink Financial Empowerment Training Pt. II: The Coalition in partnership with Hopelink are offering a series of monthly mini-trainings to explore …

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September 17, 2020 Membership Meeting

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We are grateful to each presenter for sharing their time and passion with us at our September 17 Membership meeting, and to all who shared questions and insight. Thank you to all those listed below for providing content for our meeting: Omar Cuevas Vega, Community Organizer with Statewide Poverty Action Network Christina Wong, Government Relations Director at Northwest Harvest Emily Goodright, Case Manager at Hopelink Whitney Whittemore, Program Manager at Y Social Impact Center Erin McCann, Deputy Director at Legal Council for Youth and Children Joy Scott, Community Services Manager at City of Auburn  Cory Walster, Community Organizer at Civil Survival Rachel Koller, Resource Specialist at Recovery Cafe  Kelsey Mesher, Advocacy Director at Transportation Choices Coalition  Jessyca Murphy, Student Community Manager at Path with Art Below is a summary of some of the topics that we will discussed at our Thursday, September 17 Membership Meeting. This post will be updated as additional meeting materials are collected. Register now for our next Membership Meeting on Thursday, October 15 starting at 9am. Washington Dental Access Campaign Statewide Poverty Action Network (SPAN) has launched its Washington Dental Access Campaign to bring dental therapy to communities in need. Dental therapists are primary oral health care providers that deliver routine preventive and restorative care to those who need it most. Dental therapists are critical to expanding access to dental care where it is most out of reach, providing timely, quality care to rural, low-income communities and communities of color, and to patients who have coverage through Apple Health or are uninsured. Click here to learn more.  Dental therapists were recently authorized to work in select tribal communities. Community dental health advocates are pushing to extend this authorization statewide to bring much needed dental care to communities in need. Click here to support the campaign, and …

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August 20, 2020 Coalition Membership Meeting

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Defund the Navigation Team and City of Seattle Budget Advocacy  The Seattle City Council voted to defund the entire Navigation Team as part of their 2020 budget rebalancing work, but Mayor Durkan vetoed the Council’s budget, so our work is not over. Check out this Op-Ed from REACH Co-Director Chloe Gale and our Executive Director Alison Eisinger explaining why the Navigation Team is wasteful, ineffective, and does not help to end homelessness. Negotiations over the 2021 city budget begin in a few weeks. Click here to sign up for advocacy alerts. Defunding the Navigation Team is part of a border effort to re-balance the city budget towards more culturally appropriate community support services and affordable housing. This effort is being led by a coalition group called Decriminalize Seattle, which the Coalition on Homelessness is a member. You can learn more about their efforts at participatory budgeting  here.  COVID-19 Toolkit for homeless service providers  The King County Healthcare for the Homeless Network (HCHN) has updated its COVID-19 Outreach Provider Toolkit to aid homeless service staff in their work. Michael Young-Hall and Chante Stubbs with HCHN will be joining us Thursday to review the toolkit and discuss how best to utilize it at your program.  Coalition Community Updates  Census 2020: The 2020 Census is underway, and under attack. The Federal Government is threatening to intentionally not include all residents in the final reported count, and the deadline for data collection has been arbitrarily shortened from October 31 to September 30. When in Doubt, Count. It is more important than ever to help those you work with complete the Census by the end of September. For those without a traditional address, the census will be conducting Service Based Enumeration to survey people at locations such as overnight shelter programs and meal sites from September …

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Case Manager Training Series: Financial Empowerment: Additional Tools for Homeless Service Providers

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Hopelink invites you to join their next installment in this series. You do not need to have attended prior sessions to fully participate in this training. If you would like to review our prior trainings, see the recordings below. The next installment in the series is titled Understanding Credit Reports and Scores, coming up on Wednesday, May 26 from 11am to Noon. Click here to register.   Financial Empowerment Series: Dealing with Debt April 28, 2021 Presented by Hopelink. Financial Empowerment Series: Getting Through the Month February 26, 2021 Click Here to View Presentation Materials Event Summary: The most recent workshop in our Financial Empowerment Training Series explored using cashflow budgeting to ensure the people you serve have the funds that they need at the time they need it. Static budgeting can leave households without needed income when bills come due. Thank you to the housing case management staff at Hopelink for helping us work through common scenario questions. If you plan to review the above recorded training materials, we encourage you to first examine this scenario question. Below are links to all the materials referenced in the workshop. We encourage you to refer to these as you watch the video and pause to explore each tool at your own pace. You can also read through all presentation materials here. If you have questions or wish to explore this content in more detail, please email your questions to Emily. Spending Tracker Bill Calendar Cutting Expenses Prioritizing Bills Creating a Cashflow Budget Improving your Cashflow Adjusting your Cashflow Financial Empowerment Series: Tracking Income and Benefits January 27, 2021 Click here to view presentation materials Event Summary: The latest in our case manager training series explored how to help clients track multiple sources of income, such as earned income and public assistance programs. …

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Voter Registration & Voting during a Pandemic: August 4 Primary Election Edition

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Help people who you work with register and vote in the August 4 primary, and prepare for the November 3, 2020 General Election! This blog post is supplemental to the Coalition’s Guide to voting for people who are homeless and unstably housed. The Coalition has been helping people who are experiencing homelessness register to vote and vote for over 11 years. We want to make sure that folks know that their voices matter and are important, and that You Don’t Need a House to Vote! This year our August Primary Election on Tuesday, August 4 includes voting on Federal Congressional Representatives, State Governor, Lieutenant Governor and other leadership positions, and State Senators and Representatives. The top two from each of those races will be on the November General Election ballot, along with, of course, the Presidential Election.  The Coalition does voter registration and education work because: We want to end homelessness and to do that we need to build political power. Voting is fundamental to political power. You will help with this. We want to make sure everyone’s voice is heard, want to help people who don’t have a home know that they can vote.   We need to spread the word about Voting Rights Restoration for people with felony convictions. Due to COVID-19, this summer we are unable to send our volunteers out to help register voters (typically we sent trained volunteers to day and hygiene centers and meal programs), so we want to make sure that service providers have the tools you need to support people you work with in registering to vote, updating their voter registration, and voting.  As a reminder, it is completely okay and legal for 501c3 nonprofits to help people register to vote, and provide education about the mechanics of how voting works. It is …

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July 16, 2020 Coalition Membership Meeting

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Statewide Eviction Moratorium The temporary statewide moratorium on evictions is set to expire August 1, which if not extended will put thousands in our community at risk of homelessness.Thank you Edmund Witter for explaining the eviction moratorium and sharing tips for service providers with clients involved in the eviction process, you can find a copy of his presentation here. And thank you Michele Thomas for sharing advocacy efforts underway to protect renters. WA’s eviction ban faces uncertain future, leaving renters in limbo, David Kroman, Crosscut Take Action: Tell Govenor Inslee to Extend the Eviction Moratorium through March 2021 JumpStart Seattle Advocacy Update Coalition Executive Director Alison Eisinger helped us celebrate the passage of JumpStart Seattle tax legislation and discussed the active conversation around the JumpStart Spending plan (which will be voted on very soon.. This legislation will “raise over $214 million per year in progressive revenue to respond to the immediate COVID crisis and focus on Seattle’s long-term economic revitalization and resiliency by investing in affordable housing and essential city services.” Take Action: Send a thank you message to the Seattle City Council for passing JumpStart Seattle, and encourage the Mayor to sign the legislation into law. Seattle Budget Advocacy Alison also talked about the City Council’s current work on the 2020 balancing budget and previewed the fall budget process (click here for a schedule of upcoming meetings). The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness has signed on to the Decriminalize Seattle priorities to defund the SPD by at least 50%, reallocate those funds to community led health and safety systems, and release protesters arrested during this uprising without charges. Defund SPD teach-in recording: Learn more about efforts to defund SPD and reinvest in community-based and led responses to build health and safety. Voter registration and voting during COVID-19 Click here for …

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Pandemic EBT Benefits – Updated August 11 2020

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Click here for a copy of the PowerPoint used in the above presentation 8/11/2020 Update: Thanks to advocacy efforts across the state, the USDA has approved DSHS to extend the application deadline to Friday, September 11, 2020. Approved EBT cards must be sent no later than September 30, encourage those you work with to apply today. The Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer Program (P-EBT) is a one-time award available to families with children who qualify for free or reduced-price meals through the school they attend. Families with children eligible for free and reduced price meals may be able to receive as much as $399 per child in this benefit. This benefit does not consider immigration status and is not subject to the Public Charge Rule. This means that P-EBT is one of the few benefits available to undocumented communities excluded from much of the COVID relief funds so far. Click here to review the program in more detail. With schools closed for the summer and deadlines fast approaching, we are concerned that struggling families may miss out on this crucial support. To Apply: ONLINE: Households enrolled in free or reduced-price meals apply for P-EBT through the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). Eligible household can apply online at www.washingtonconnection.org. Click here for Step-by-Step Instructions on applying online. OVER THE PHONE: 1-877-501-2233. Due to state budget cuts, DSHS will be taking furlough days every Monday through the end of July. Families can still apply online, however those requiring phone assistance will have to reach out Tuesday through Friday between 8am and 5pm.