Victories in the state legislature

We're pleased to announce major victories in the areas of school readiness and ending homelessness with the state legislature. Our work to educate lawmakers about the importance of policies and investments in these two areas really paid off.

We especially owe thanks to our state's budgeters, the governor, and legislative leadership, who chose to make housing and homelessness a priority, along with unprecedented investments and new policies in early learning. We'd also like to thank some of our private sector partners and others who participated in our lobby day, which included an address by Governor Gregoire, including The Boeing Company, Perkins Coie, the Group Health Foundation, UPS, SPEEA and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

Victory highlights include:

• Building housing: The legislature invested heavily in housing this year, increasing by $140 million the Housing Trust Fund to build more low-income and homeless housing. This will help 250,000 families in Washington who pay much more than they can afford for housing.
• Increasing local resources for flexible solutions to homelessness: The legislature increased local flexible funding for homelessness through passage of E2SHB 1359, which will bring approximately $3 to $4 million a year and increase the number of units of supportive housing in King County.
• Strengthening quality child care: The legislature invested $5 million to roll out a 'Quality Rating Improvement System' for child care facilities in four pilot sites, including a demonstration project in White Center in King County, and increased the level of the scholarships for low-income kids in child care.
• Supporting parents as their children's first teachers: The legislature also 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 to benefit parents and other caregivers, and a survey and public education campaign around parenting.

Many thanks to everyone who is signed up for our legislative alerts and who took the time to contact their representatives in support of our legislative agenda. If you are not already signed up for these alerts, please consider doing so before the legislature kicks off its fall session. Your support makes a tremendous difference in our public policy work.

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