Hali

Together, We Banned Seattle Junk Fees!

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Stay tuned for a possible state-wide effort to ban junk fees for all Washington renters. We have a victory to celebrate! Thanks to everyone who wrote letters, testified, told your friends, made awesome signs (including Alison’s new baby chicken) and spoke up in other ways, the Seattle City Council unanimously* banned rental junk fees including pet rent, effective July 1 2027! Hats off to the Stay Housed Stay Healthy Coalition for leading the charge on this effort! The Coalition on Homelessness is a proud member of SHSH.  Please join me to send a quick note of thanks to Mayor Wilson and our City Councilmembers. Electeds are people too and thanking them makes it more likely they will support our goals in the future. Scroll down for an easy email template and a more detailed description of what this junk fee ban means for renters. Join our September 17 Membership Meeting to learn more about this and a possible state-wide effort to ban junk fees, and stay tuned for budget legislation in the Fall to enforce this law and make sure that landlords who break the law are held accountable. *Councilmember Rivera is a landlord and City ethics rules disqualified her from voting due to a conflict of interest What Does This Mean? For rental agreements beginning on July 1, 2027 or later, landlords cannot charge junk fees in the city of Seattle. They must also disclose any mandatory and optional fees and amounts clearly in the rental listing. Banned junk fees include: Landlords ARE still allowed to charge: Easy, Quick, Copy/Paste Thank You Email For Seattle residents/workers Thanking elected officials is important! It makes it more likely they will support similar efforts in the future. If you have time, it’s always great to customize this message and say why you care about junk fees. …

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Speak Up Against HUD’s Attempt to Dismantle the Equal Access Rule

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Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has proposed a rule change that would remove protections for people to access HUD-funded shelter, housing and services that best fit their gender identity. Tearing down the “Equal Access Rule” would make those resources contingent on matching biological sex, and it would allow service providers to demand proof of someone’s biological sex in order to access services. That would further marginalize trans, intersex, and nonbinary people who are already at high risk of homelessness and dangerous situations while they are homeless. Speak up today against this terrible rule change! Write your comment before June 29, 2026 using the template below. HUD is legally required to review all comments and respond to them in their final rule. We have successfully stalled out other terrible rule changes before by submitting an overwhelming number of comments – let’s do it again! Sample comment – please customize it if you have time: I strongly oppose the proposed changes to the Equal Access Rule issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This proposal would remove critical protections that ensure fair and equal access to housing and services for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people. By stopping people from choosing services that align with their gender identity, forcing them into programs and services that do not meet their needs, and allowing providers to require proof of a person’s biological sex, this rule opens the door to discrimination, denial of services, and dangerous conditions for people seeking HUD-funded shelter, housing, and services. According to data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, transgender people are more likely to be unsheltered than their cisgender peers, and those who are unsheltered have worse health and experience more dangerous conditions than those who are sheltered. More data is available …

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Speak Up: It’s HUD’s Job to House People

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Recent rulings in two lawsuits against the  U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have provided short-term protections for the Continuum of Care (CoC) program and permanent supportive housing that thousands of King County residents rely on to stay housed and safe. Let’s celebrate these victories AND let’s speak up together to fight ongoing threats to essential federal programs. Recently, HUD proposed three dangerous rules that would force many people who live in federally subsidized housing into homelessness. None of these changes are final yet, and we still have an opportunity to prevent them. Submitting a flood of comments has worked in the past to successfully stall or stop harmful rules.  Federal rulemaking is a unique process. HUD is legally required to review all comments and respond to important issues in their final rule. So, it’s important we all submit comments to accumulate as many as possible. You can always submit anonymously if you prefer, so your information won’t be part of the public record. Once you’ve left your comments, please share this opportunity to take action with others. Together we can protect people who rely on federally-funded housing! Time limits & work requirements for public housing put millions at risk of homelessness HUD proposed a rule that, if passed, would allow public housing authorities and owners of certain HUD-assisted properties to enforce work requirements for work-eligible* people, mandating them to work up to 40 hours per week or lose their housing. This rule would also implement an unprecedented two-year time limit on assistance that could result in an estimated 3.3 million people losing their rental assistance, including 1.7 million children.  📢 Leave a comment in opposition to the Time Limit & Work Requirement Rule before Friday, May 1, 2026 Example comment (adapted from the National Low Income Housing Coalition) Everyone needs to live in a safe, stable, affordable home. Federal rental assistance programs help more than …

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Analysis of House Bill 2266 for Housing Fairness (Passed into Washington State Law in 2026)

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Disclaimer: this summary was prepared by Coalition staff in April 2026, and is intended to help the public understand the impact and importance of HB 2266. It should not be used as legal advice. Background Since the Growth Management Act went into effect in 2021, cities and counties are not allowed to prohibit STEP housing (Shelter, Transitional Housing, Emergency Housing, and Permanent Supportive Housing) in certain zones within their jurisdictions. Unfortunately, many jurisdictions found loopholes in that law and imposed unreasonable requirements, restrictions, and barriers – many rooted in stigma or neighborhood opposition – to work around this requirement and make developing STEP housing more costly, burdensome, and vulnerable to disruption. These local regulations include opaque, complex, and arbitrary approval processes, restrictive spacing requirements (i.e., banning shelter within 1,000 feet from another shelter), and unfunded mandates for providers. These practices create barriers that make it extremely difficult to create or operate much-needed shelter and housing. In some cases, these barriers even required existing shelter to shut down. Some examples are listed below. To the best of our knowledge, these will all be unlawful once HB 2266 goes into effect later in 2026. HB 2266 closes loopholes in the Growth Management Act and paves the way for more STEP housing to be created in jurisdictions across the state. Summary Expanding siting: HB 2266 changes how cities and counties must approach siting(approving a location) for STEP housing. It requires cities and counties to allow: Limiting requirements: HB 2266 also places important limitations on what cities and counties can require as a condition of siting or developing STEP housing. Under this bill, cities/counties are generally not allowed to: If a city/county uses a design review process, that process must be administrative (done by the lead city planner, not elected officials) and it must …

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Wrapping Up the 2024 Legislative Session

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The Washington State Legislature adjourned on March 7th, 2024. At the end of this short session, it’s our job to help you understand what passed and what didn’t this legislative session. Wins The legislature included $60 million in the final operating budget to help fill a gap in funding for housing and shelter across the state. This is a huge improvement from the Senate’s original budget, which only included $20 million, and will go a long way towards making sure shelter and housing providers can keep their doors open this year. The final capital budget also includes $127.5 million for the Housing Trust Fund to build affordable housing, which will be added to the record-high $400 million investment in affordable housing the legislature made last year in the State’s 2-year budget. We want to extend our thanks to House budget leaders Representatives Macri and Ormsby for their hard work on this issue, and to the Housing Alliance for leading a strong campaign. The legislature also passed the child support pass-through (HB 1652, Taylor). If signed by the governor, this bill will make sure that families receiving TANF benefits receive their full child support payments. Currently, the State takes a cut of child support payments before passing it on to families who receive TANF. We tip our hats to our friends at Poverty Action who have been pushing this important policy change for years, and to Representatives Taylor, Couture, and Rule for sponsoring this important bill. Other important bills that passed the legislature include: Priority Bills that Did Not Pass

The Coalition’s State Legislative Priorities

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The State Legislative Session has begun! Check back here for an updated list of our top legislative priorities. Last updated 3/1/24 at 12:30 PM. Bills That are Still “Alive” Fund affordable housing & shelter (HB 2276, SB 6191, $70 million budget request to backfill the document recording fee shortfall) HB 2276 and SB 6191 would fund more affordable housing through the Housing Trust Fund by increasing taxes on the sale of real estate over approx. $3 million, and decreasing taxes on the sale of less valuable real estate. Because these bills are “necessary to implement the budget”, they are not subject to legislative cutoff dates. In addition, we need approx. $70 MILLION added to the budget to prevent cuts to homelessness shelter and services. This is due to a shortfall in Document Recording Fees collected in recent years. We can’t afford to lose any capacity in these vital services. Address high insurance costs for housing providers (HB 2329) – PASSED THE LEGISLATURE Organizations that provide housing for people with low or no income face astronomical costs to insure their buildings, and these costs are quickly going up each year. HB 2329 would commission a study to learn why costs are increasing so dramatically, and would make recommendations to the legislature to help fix the problem. The legislature often commissions studies as an early step towards fixing a problem, and this is a step in the right direction. Reinstate the child support pass-through (HB 1652) – PASSED THE LEGISLATURE This bill would ensure that low-income families get their whole child support payment. Currently, the State takes a chunk of child support payments before passing the payment on to low-income families receiving TANF benefits. Help people keep TANF benefits when they need them (HB 2007) Note: this bill has been amended multiple …

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