And it’s all over but for the signatures!
In even numbered years, the Legislature for the state of Washington conducts a “short session,” meeting for 90 days starting in January. This year, that 90-day window closed on Thursday, March 12th. That means any piece of legislation that was under consideration needed to be passed by both the House and Senate and headed to the Governor by the time the gavel falls. Luckily, Habitat for Humanity of Washington State was successful in helping to get a number of bills across the line.
Without the leadership shown by our elected leaders on both sides of the aisle however, none of this would have been possible. We thank Speaker Laurie Jinkins, Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox, Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, Minority Leader Mark Schoesler, And the leadership of the Housing Committee leadership in both chambers, Senators Patty Kuderer and Hans Zeiger as well as Representatives Cindy Ryu and Bill Jenkin. Thanks to them and so many more, we achieved so much for housing affordability during this short session.
What happened over the last 90 days?
With all of that out of the way, let’s talk about what happened over the last few months. Habitat for Humanity of Washington State had a robust legislative agenda this session, supporting a wide range of policy initiatives covering the entire spectrum of housing. Feel free to check that out here.
The legislature had housing as a focus throughout the entire legislative session and the end result shows that they did a pretty good job of keeping their promise.
Ultimately, of the 15 topics on our legislative agenda, we saw progress on at least nine of them. Some of the highlights include the passage of HB 1694, which requires the availability of installation payment programs for move in costs. You can read more about this on our previous blog post here. Another bill that passed (but was vetoed by the Governor) was HB 2634, which allows for an exemption of the Real Estate Excise Tax (REET) when land is sold or given to a nonprofit entity. That will allow us to compete with private entities for property and use more money to continue building homes.
One more bill that passed is HB 2343, a bill that, among other things, encourages localities to develop and produce Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), which are basically small homes on the same property as a larger home. This will allow for more flexible options for homes and applies a market-based solution to the housing crisis.
Another bill that Habitat Washington supported was a bill that was on Tacoma Habitat’s priority agenda, SB 6212, which will allow the funds raised via a voter approved property tax levy to fund foreclosure prevention programs, affordable homeownership and owner-occupied home repair projects for low-income households earning no more than 80% of the local area median income. Read more about the bill here.
Two other bills passed with Habitat Washington support this session. It includes HB 2950, which extends the Multi-Family Tax Exemption and sets up a task force to study it and come up with possible reforms to the program to improve the effectiveness of it. It also includes HB 2497, which allows community revitalization financing programs to fund permanently affordable housing.
Lastly, we saw three of our budget priorities included in the final agreement. Ten million dollars was set aside for the preservation of affordable housing that is about to lose its restrictions on affordability. We also saw $40 million dollars get allocated to the Housing Trust Fund for the production and preservation of affordable housing and money was also allocated for foreclosure prevention.
Overall, it was a good legislative session, but so much more is needed. We need to see more density across the state, maximizing the use of things like duplexes and triplexes. We need to see more development of affordable rental options where people making minimum wage can actually afford to have a place to call home. Our work is not yet done – but progress has been made.