United Way of King County achieves key victories in Olympia

This year, United Way of King County achieved some major victories in the state legislature around school readiness, ending homelessness, and ongoing funding in the area of access to services.

Our public policy work this year paid off for our community by:

Giving kids better access to quality child care:
We lobbied the legislature and it increased the level of subsidies for low-income kids in child care by more than 7 percent to better reflect the cost of child care throughout the state.

Strengthening and expanding state-funded preschools:
We lobbied the legislature and it expanded state-subsidized preschool for low-income children by adding 2,250 slots statewide.

Supporting parents as their children's first teachers:
The legislature invested in several areas to support parents, consistent with our work with the Early Learning Council last summer, including $3.5 million in home visitation programs for at-risk parents across the state and $2 million for a parent support hotline, classes and materials.

Keeping kids healthy enough to learn:
Children with untreated chronic or acute illnesses have a difficult time learning. We worked with our partners and supporters to urge the governor to sign SB 5093 to enroll an additional 19,000 kids in Medicaid. A total of $34 million was appropriated for implementation.

Building housing:
Our efforts resulted in an increase in funding by $130 million to the Housing Trust Fund to build more low-income and homeless housing.

Housing ex-offenders and former foster youth:
We helped get House Bill 6157 passed, which ensures that those who are at the most significant risk of becoming homeless have adequate housing and services to become stable. We worked to pass House Bill 1922, which creates a new program for foster youth to have access to housing and supportive services after leaving the foster care system.

Creating flexible solutions to homelessness:
We sought to increase the number of units of supportive housing to address both housing for the homeless and the issues causing homelessness. Passage of E2SHB 1359 will bring approximately $4 million per year into King County on an on-going basis. We worked to increase opportunities for low-income people to invest in matched savings accounts (Individual Development Accounts) by providing an increase in the amount of federal tax refunds that they claim. The legislature added $1 million in state dollars to match low-income investors' savings for an asset and $1.3 million for other asset development strategies.

Make your voice heard in Olympia. Help us get all children ready for success in school, end homelessness and maintain the 2-1-1 system by signing up for our legislative alerts.

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