Public policy

General Membership Meeting – Sept 17, 2026

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At our September 2026 Membership Meeting, we heard from the Community Health Plan of Washington and the Northwest Health Law Advocates about upcoming changes to Medicaid that will impact single adults experiencing homelessness. We reviewed new legislation passed in Seattle that bans “junk fees” for Seattle renters, talked about proposed legislation in Seattle that would impact RV residents, and shared opportunities to use your advocacy muscles this budget season. If this wealth of information is something you want to share with others or access again, please subscribe to the Coalition’s YouTube channel, where our membership meetings and trainings are collected. Coalition Announcements Our next General Membership Meeting is Thursday, October 15 IN PERSON at Washington Hall from 9-11 a.m. This meeting will be focused on voting rights and is intended for program staff who can help share good, nonpartisan voting rights information with their clients, guests, and residents. You’ll leave the meeting being able to help others understand: We invite you to join us or share this opportunity with someone on your team who could help steward this information at your program. There will be materials provided for taking back to your programs including voter registration forms in multiple languages. If you missed our most recent Helping Homeless Students training, you can find the full recap on our blog here. Federal Changes to Apple Health (Medicaid) Starting Oct 2026 and Jan 2027 You can find a toolkit with downloadable resources provided by the Community Health Plan of Washington online here. Advocacy Updates in Seattle and King County Thanks to amazing advocacy by many in the Seattle community, including the Stay Housed Stay Health Coalition, Seattle recently banned pet rent and junk fees for leases that start on or after July 1, 2027. Some fees are still allowed including RUBS, move in …

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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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Annual Membership Meeting – May 21, 2026

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2026 Annual Membership MeetingThursday, May 21, 8:30-11 a.m. 9:15 – 9:30 a.m. Welcome and Introductions 9:30 – 10 a.m. The Power of Being in Coalition Together 10 – 10:40 a.m. Who Can Call King County Home? A conversation about the housing affordability crisis with: 10:40 – 10:50 Coalition Board of Directors Candidate Slate 10:50 – 11 a.m. Member Announcements Speak Up Against HUD’s Attempt to Dismantle the Equal Access Rule COMING IN AUGUST: Helping Homeless Students: McKinney-Vento 101 A training for public school, housing, and human services staff working with students experiencing homelessness in area public schools. SAVE THE DATE: Truth to (Staying) Power Thurs, Sept 17, The Royal Room – Tickets on sale in June Support the Coalition and celebrate a milestone of staying power for our Executive Director, Alison Eisinger (20 years!). PAST COALITION MEETINGS & TRAININGS: bit.ly/SKCCHYouTube INTERESTED IN MEMBERSHIP? Individual, Allied, or Organizational Email membership[at]homelessinfo[.]org or call 206-204-8350 for more information. Join our next Membership meeting Thursday, June 18, 9-10:30 a.m., Zoom Register here.

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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2026 Legislative Preview – December 11, 2025

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Our December General Membership Meeting was dedicated to previewing the new year’s state legislative session. We were joined by four state lawmakers and two statewide partner organizations to hear what they’re focused on during the short 2026 state legislative session, which starts Monday, January 12 and is slated to run until Thursday, March 12. Our December meeting also featured Easy Advocacy 101, helped us find our state legislative districts, introduced Advocacy BINGO, and included two actions we took together!  If this wealth of information is something you want to share with others or access again, please subscribe to the Coalition’s YouTube channel, where our membership meetings and trainings are collected. Easy Advocacy 101 Jump to 0:05:36 to view this section of our meeting. The first step to being an effective advocate is knowing who represents you in the state legislature. Each constituent has two state representatives and one state senator. Find out what legislative district you vote in and who represents you here: https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/ During each state legislative session, we will see new bills and bills from previous years. Sometimes it takes years of sustained advocacy for a bill to pass into law! Washington state is facing a significant budget deficit going into session. The state will also need to spend more on public benefits, like SNAP, based on new federal regulations, so new revenue is necessary to sustain current homes, shelter, and services. Progressive revenue will be key! Our 2026 Legislative Priorities (DRAFT EDITION) Each year, the Coalition tracks key bills and budget measures that will help us achieve our legislative priorities. Bills and budget measures change throughout the session, so stay tuned for updates on this page of our website. As of Thursday, December 11, our state legislative priorities for 2026 are: Advocacy just means speaking up! There …

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