By Brenda Schallberger, Council for the Homeless

Taking their leadership role seriously to lead advocacy efforts for the prevention and ending of homelessness, Council for the Homeless participates annually at Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day in Olympia during the assembly of the Washington State Legislature. On February 1st, CFTH chartered a bus, sponsored in part by Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, and sent over 30 delegates from Clark County to attend in-person meetings with lawmakers from the 17 th , 18 th , and 49 th districts. This dedicated group that boarded the bus before dawn was the largest number of delegates to attend.

Thank you to the Clark County Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day delegation, which included several community advocates and representatives of several organizations including Clark County Lawyers Program, Community Roots Collaborative, Faith Partners for Housing, Helping Hands, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Outsiders In, REACH Community Development, Share, and Tilikum.

Once arrived in Olympia, the delegates attended a short training and then split up into three groups to prepare their comments for meetings with lawmakers from their district. Advocacy had to be honed into concise sentences, include powerful value statements and conclude by asking specifically for the lawmakers’ support.

Craig Lyons assists CFTH to prepare comments for the day's meetings with lawmakers.

One of this year’s particularly important policy items is the passage of HB2578 / SB 5407. These bills ban source of income discrimination by ensuring that landlords are not allowed to categorically deny applications from tenants simply because they use housing subsidies or income supports to help pay the rent. The other important policy item is HB 1570, which sustains and increases funding for programs that prevent and end homelessness by using a modest fee paid to file real estate related documents. The passage of this essential piece of legislation would also allow local jurisdictions to increase the fee.

Advocacy like this helps to build the movement to ensure that everyone in Washington has the opportunity to live in a safe, healthy, affordable home. Community Advocates are encouraged to subscribe to the occasional e-newsletter for information about further advocacy efforts at this link:

View the Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day  Facebook Album: CLICK HERE