Take Action! – Page 9 – Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness Blog

The Power of Kids

January 31, 2013 by Alison Eisinger

Yesterday, I had a great time as one of hundreds of advocates who joined the Children’s Alliance for Have a Heart for Kids Advocacy Day in Olympia. The marble halls of Olympia are usually filled with the low, booming voices of adults, but yesterday the Capitol was filled with the squeals of excited kids running around. Samantha Kersul, Legislative Aide to Senator Frockt (my senator in the 46th Legislative District!) told me, it was a nice change to have kids around the Capitol. Before going to meet with our legislators, we marched to the Capitol and held a rally. At the rally, a young girl gave the opening remarks. She called to action all the adults in the audience: “as kids we need the help of adults to get a good start in life. We need you to help fight for us.” She is exactly right: if we as adults don’t fight for the kids of our state, they will not have a fair chance at a future. It was a truly amazing and inspiring speech. Next, Governor Inslee began his speech with a reference to a photo of a 4-year-old child sleeping on a bench that was captured during the homeless point-in-time count in Olympia and published in the local paper. Moved by this picture, Inslee stated, “I am governor of this state and we should not be a state where a 4-year-old does not have a place to sleep at night.” He spoke about how important it is that we give the kids of our state a fair chance at a good start and a promising future. He spoke about the exciting prospects of the McCleary decision and the possible benefits it could bring to our state, but he also had a warning that he wanted us to …

Fair Tenant Screening Act – What’s At Stake in the 2013 Legislative Session?

December 14, 2012 by Alison Eisinger

In 2009, advocates proposed a bill in our state legislature that would become the Fair Tenant Screening Act. Intended to solve the unjust and unfair tenant screening system in Washington state, the bill’s overarching goals were to: Prevent & address homelessness Maintain housing access for survivors of domestic violence Reduce burden on nonprofit housing providers by increasing tenants’ access to the private rental housing market Ensure access to justice, and fair & accurate tenant screening Address affordability of tenant screening reports This was a community effort with many organizations, including the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, endorsing the bill. In the 2012 Legislative Session, part of the bill successfully passed through the legislature. The Fair Tenant Screening Act, passed in 2012, guarantees increased transparency for tenants when applying for housing. Landlords are required to disclose the criteria they use to screen tenants and the screening company they hire to run the reports. Landlords must also give tenants “adverse action notices” explaining why prospective tenants are rejected for tenancy. What does this mean for tenants? When a company screens a tenant and there is a mistake on that individual’s record, the tenant will know what the mistake is and who to contact to fix it. Before this was passed, tenants had no idea what was on the screening reports and why they were constantly being rejected by landlords. They would spend hundreds of dollars in screening fees at each rental property they applied to without ever securing a place to live and not being told why. This was a huge win for tenant rights in Washington, but as only part of the proposed bill passed, there is still more to be done in 2013 to create a just and fair screening system. Advocates for tenant rights are proposing a robust agenda for the 2013 Legislative Session on fair tenant …

How Can You Help Protect Food Stamps?

December 5, 2012 by Alison Eisinger

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program, otherwise known as food stamps, is on the cutting block in the fiscal cliff discussion. This is a crucial time and your legislators need to hear from YOU about how important this program is to sustaining the lives of many Washingtonians. The Anti-Hunger and Nutrition Coalition states that over 1 million Washingtonians rely on food stamps and that if the Farm Bill passes in its current state, then the monthly food budget of at least 234,000 homes in WA will decrease by $90 and 80,000 homes will be ineligible for the program. The Food Resource and Action Center (FRAC) commented that it is very important to contact your legislators NOW because if the Farm Bill, which includes our nation’s food stamp program, becomes part of a larger legislative package, it will be much harder to convince legislators to vote against it. To contact your legislators, simply call the Legislative Hotline and they will connect you to your legislator’s office: (202) 224-3121. You can also write your legislator an email. If you are not sure who your legislators are, you can find out on the Washington State Legislature Page. Here are some sample messages you can use from FRAC when contacting your legislators. Make sure to educate your representatives on the impact this bill would have on WA families (see above details). “Over time, spending money to reduce hunger in America is a good investment. It more than pays for itself because it reduces long-term social costs such as the problems hungry children have in school and the health problems of people who don’t eat properly.” “The food stamp program is working for the most vulnerable people in our nation. It is the country’s first line of defense against hunger, and cutting help for …

VOTE: Don’t Forget to Turn in Your Ballot BY NOVEMBER 6!

November 5, 2012 by Alison Eisinger

As many of you know, TOMORROW, is the final day of the 2012 general election, so don’t forget to turn in those ballots! You should have received your ballot a few weeks ago and at this point if you have not mailed it in, you should drop it off at one of the drop-box locations, which you can find on our 2012 Homeless Voter’s Guide. At this point, it may be better to drop your ballot off at a drop-box rather than put it in the mail since we are so close to election day – any ballots postmarked after November 6 will not be counted (keep in mind USPS hours!). All ballots must be post-marked by election day (that’s tomorrow!) or dropped off at drop-box by 8pm.

Comment on HEARTH and McKinney Vento proposed changes

August 17, 2012 by admin

During our General Membership meeting yesterday, Kate Speltz did an amazing job walking our members through the Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) proposed changes to the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act as it relates to the Interim Continuum of Care (CoC) rule. If you think this topic sounds esoteric, than you’re right. This stuff is really complicated, but it’s also THE legislation that regulates significant funding for homeless prevention, housing, and services federally and at the state level through competitive grants. The National Alliance to End Homelessness has done an admirable job summarizing the proposed changes and Kate pulled out the parts of the CoC rule which services providers and organizations who serve the homeless would be most impacted by. The proposed CoC rule will go into effect on August 30th and individuals and organizations are encouraged to submit comments to HUD before October 1, 2012. Kate is interested in receiving comments from providers and organizations which will help to inform the Seattle-King County response to the proposal, however she encourages all concerned individuals to comment directly to HUD. Here are two areas in the proposal that Kate thinks service providers and homeless and housing advocates might like to comment on: McKinney Vento allowable funding. The current proposal specifically identifies which services can be paid for with McKinney funding. You are encouraged to review that list for services that you believe are important. Interpretation services, for example, are not currently included in the list. We know that many housing and homeless service organizations rely heavily on interpretive services when assessing, screening and serving homeless individuals. This proposal also requires states to setup and use a centralized or coordinated assessment system for all people entering the homeless assistance system by the end of 2014. It isn’t completely clear what it means to …

Becca Bill Changes

July 2, 2012 by admin

For the last two years, homeless youth had 3 days to stay in a shelter before staff was required to call and notify their parents of their whereabouts. During these three days, staff could create rapport with the young person, build trust and find out if they were fleeing a violent or abusive situation or taking a breather and that reconciliation with family was possible. After July 1, however, this 72 hour window will end. The Becca Bill was adopted by the Washington State Legislature in 1995 to protect homeless and run away youth by giving parents more control over where their children are located. The Becca Bill is connected to the truancy policy for students in Washington State. The law requires that shelter staff and other service providers contact parents of youth younger than 17 years old with their whereabouts. The enforcement of the law is controversial and two years ago, due to much advocacy, the Legislature passed a temporary provision giving service providers 72 hours to serve a minor before having to notify parents or the police. This temporary extension will expire after June 30th. Service providers will now have only 8 hours with youth before law requires them notify families or the authorities. That is, if the youth show up at all once word gets out. The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness is communicating with agencies that this change will directly effect to coordinate advocacy efforts and to get the word out about the change to homeless youth, service providers, and the community at large. At our Youth and Young Adult Committee meeting on July 10th and at our General Membership Meeting on July 19th members of the coalition will have an opportunity to discuss advocacy and efforts under way at various agencies to mitigate the potentially …