At least 25,452 people in Washington are living on the street or in emergency shelter and transitional housing, according to the Department of Commerce’s 2022 one-night “Point in Time” count. That’s likely an undercount of homelessness in the state.
With the crisis worsening, state legislators and Gov. Jay Inslee have made affordable housing and homelessness centerpieces of the 2023 legislative session.
At its core, Washington’s homelessness crisis stems from a lack of housing people can afford. Even though the state minimum wage is one of the highest in the nation, there is essentially no housing on the private market a Washington minimum-wage earner can afford with a 40-hour work week. An analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that a $100 median rent increase was associated with a 9% increase in homelessness.
Legislators have introduced dozens of proposed housing bills meant to do everything from increasing density in residential neighborhoods across the state to funding more subsidized affordable housing to limiting how much landlords can raise the rent each year. Inslee wants to pay for more affordable housing and homeless services with a $4 billion bond measure.
While affordable housing is key, homelessness advocates say there are several other essential steps the Legislature must take this year to not only make progress on homelessness, but ensure the state doesn’t slide backward into a worse crisis. They include shoring up funding for services,...
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a legal complaint in a federal court in the Southern District of Florida to shut down tax return preparers Cedric Reid and Juan Santana, along with their b...