United Way of King County's Board of Directors adopted four priorities before the 2007 legislative session.

Legislative Updates & Calls to Action
Act TODAY

Early learning and ending homelessness are two of our community's most pressing issues. United Way of King County is working to ensure that children are safe, healthy and ready to succeed when they enter kindergarten and that everyone has a safe place to call home. We need your help to ensure lasting solutions.

1. Getting kids ready for school 

The time is now to invest in early learning! The legislature will adjourn on April 22, 2007, which means now is the time to ask our legislators to make a strong investment in our state’s young children.  

Support Full Funding for School Readiness by Adopting the House Budget.

Action Requested:

Please contact the Governor and your legislators and ask them to support early learning investments at the House budget level. Please e-mail or telephone (360-902-4111) the Governor. Please also call the legislative hotline (1-800-562-6000) or email the following King County legislators and ask them to support early learning investments at the House budget level, making a strong investment for our state’s youngest children:  Speaker Frank Chopp, Rep. Helen Sommers, Rep. Ruth Kagi, Sen. Margarita Prentice, Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe and Sen. Tracey Eide. To find your legislator, click here. 

If it helps, you can copy and paste the message below into an e-mail and send it to the representatives listed above to convey the importance of this action.  

Dear Legislator: 

Please support early learning the House budget for early learning and make a significant investment in our state’s young children—the time is now. The Governor’s and the House’s budgets took important steps toward implementing the recommendation of Washington Learns, and many private sector partners are poised to do the same. 

I urge you to support the House budget because 1) It addresses the need to support children ‘where they are’ by investing in good early learning environments and supports for children in all types of settings, including with their parents, to ensure that they will be ready for school, and 2) It makes a strong investment in the Quality Rating Improvement System, a key component to improving formal child care environments. 

Please support the House budget’s investments in early learning. Thank you. 

Sincerely,

 

YOUR NAME

AFFILIATION

PHONE NUMBER 

Background: The Governor’s Washington Learns task force made a series of recommendations for improving the early learning environments of young children. These recommendations addressed children ‘where they are’—including formal child care centers, child care homes, informal child care and with parents. The House and the Governor’s budget also addressed children ‘where they are.’ The Senate’s budget focuses more narrowly on improving the quality of care to children who are in child care centers.    

2. Ending homelessness and providing basic services 

Pass E2SHB 1359 and Increase the Bill’s Funding to the Senate Consumer Protection and Housing Committee Level 

Action Requested:

Please e-mail your King County Senator or telephone at the legislative hotline 1-800-562-6000 and ask him/her to support E2SHB 1359 to move us towards ending homelessness in our community. Ask your Senator to support an increase in the bill’s funding back to $8.00 as it was originally passed out of committee. To find your Senator, click here. 

If it helps, you can copy and paste the message below into an e-mail and send it to the representatives listed above to convey the importance of this action.  

Dear Senator: 

I urge your support for E2SHB 1359 when it is heard in the full Senate and to ask you to increase the amount of the document recording fee to $8.00, as the bill contained when it was approved by the Senate Consumer Protection and Housing Committee. $8.00 is an inconsequential amount in the cost of a real estate transaction, when recordings of most documents occur, and I believe that it is a small price to pay for ending homelessness. At the $8.00 level, the fee would raise about $3.14 million for homelessness for King County on an on-going annual basis.   

In King County, this flexible local funding for homelessness will allow us to continue to focus on getting as many people as possible off our streets and into supportive housing. Similar homelessness funding allowed King County to add over 200 supportive housing units in the last year, strengthen our homelessness management information system, and extend wrap around services to other units of housing to ensure that people are able to remain stable and housed. However, even though our One Night Count was down this year, we still have over 8000 people on any given night who are homeless in King County and will need supportive housing. Over 2,000 are on the streets, approximately 2,500 in emergency shelter, and approximately 3,500 in transitional housing (not necessarily with supportive services).

I urge you to pass E2SHB 1359 and increase its funding source in order to match our community’s commitment to leverage our local and private philanthropic funding (United Way, corporate and others) to end homelessness in our county, not just manage it. Homelessness is unacceptable, and we must take bold actions to end it. 

Thank you for your support. 

Sincerely,

 

YOUR NAME

AFFILIATION

PHONE NUMBER 

Background:  Information on our 2007 bills and budget items related to homelessness/basic services.  E2SHB 1359 passed the Senate Ways and Means Committee, but the funding source was reduced by 75%. Now, we need to get it through the full Senate to ensure that our progress towards ending homelessness in King County continues and get the bill fully funded. Similar funding in past years has been invested in supportive services such as housing search, life skills training, links to mental health and substance abuse counseling and employment training to support 600 units in King County. Already, it is making a difference; we simply have more homeless people than available housing with supportive services. Additional funding will keep us on track towards ending homelessness by 2015 by continuing to offer these critical wrap-around services. The original bill contained an $8 document recording fee which will fund these projects, charged at the time of recording a document with the County Auditor. Typical documents recorded are real estate transactions—the fee is less than 1/100 of 1% of the value of a median priced home in King County, and will help thousands of people in King County to get stable and housed. United Way of King County’s recent poll on homelessness shows that people are willing to pay more to end homelessness, if they feel that money is spent wisely.

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For more information about United Way of King County's Public Policy Agenda and how to get involved, contact Carol Wood, esq. director of public policy and community relations at (206) 461-3756.

All media queries should be directed to United Way of King County's Public Relations Manager, Jared Erlandson at (206) 461-3742.

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