Inslee Urges Lawmakers To Address Homelessness With Federal Funds

OLYMPIA, WA — Gov. Jay Inslee is calling on the legislature to do more to address the state's growing housing crisis.

"Despite our efforts, homelessness has unfortunately increased in Washington state because of the COVID pandemic," Inslee said at a conference discussing the issue Thursday.

A recent report from The Seattle Times found that homelessness in Washington grew 6.2 percent between 2019 and 2020. That's more than triple the nationwide average during that same time, and a problem that has only been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic fallout.

Inslee notes that Washington has done some work already to prevent residents from losing their homes this past year — in particular, he says the eviction moratorium, now in its 14th month, has prevented an estimated 75,000 Washingtonians from becoming unhoused — but that much more must be done.

That's doubly true considering that, once that moratorium ends, some residents will have more than a year's worth of past-due rent. Landlords are required to offer "reasonable" repayment plans, but some tenants will not be able to repay thousands in past debts, and are at risk of becoming unhoused.

To prevent further spikes in homelessness, the governor is directing the state legislature to pull from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-relief American Rescue Plan to address the issue. The plan gave $4.25 billion directly to state government, according to the Washington State Treasurer.

"Specifically I am proposing that the legislature appropriate federal funding from the American Rescue Plan towards rapidly acquiring housing units, providing case management, and clean up and rehabilitation of public spaces that have been used as encampments," Inslee said.

That last portion of Inslee's proposal may be a sticking point, depending on how it is implemented or enforced. In Seattle, so-called "sweeps" of homeless encampments have become a hot button issue, with advocates for the unhoused saying they simply force residents experiencing homelessness to move, without offering a real solution to the issue.

That said, at his conference Thursday the governor did not lay out many specifics on how he felt the issue should be addressed. Inslee hinted he would support a housing-first solution to homelessness, but stressed that the best path forward would be for the state government to make partnerships with individual communities to tailor the fix for each community's needs.

"Mutual investments and partnerships going forward should invest in strategies getting people off the streets and under a roof with dignity and privacy," Inslee said.