At CHPW, we believe access to safe, affordable, and stable housing is essential to maintaining health; thus, for the past three years, CHPW has supported the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance’s housing agenda, including key policy initiatives like rent stabilization, zoning reforms, and anti-criminalization measures.
This year we also sponsored Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day in Olympia where our staff had the opportunity to join other advocates in meetings with legislators to discuss the need for more housing opportunities for Washington communities.
We’re happy to celebrate the passage of rent stabilization along with other key housing bills and funding opportunities.
We also understand that much of housing policy advocacy happens at the local level, thus we have released a series of local housing policy papers that highlight opportunities to engage in housing policy efforts in local communities as well as providing tools and resources to support those efforts.
You can read the papers here:
- Local Housing Policy: Introduction
- Local Housing Policy: Definitions, Legislative Tracking Tools, and Additional Resources
- Local Housing Policy: Specific Populations
- Local Housing Policy: Zoning Laws, Tenant Protections and Criminalization
of Homelessness - Local Housing Policy: Affordable Sales Tax, Document Recording Fees, and Levies
- Local Housing Policy: Community Engagement, Comp Plans, and Local Advice
Some of the key policy areas include zoning reform, tenant protections, affordable housing sales tax, document recording fees, levies, and homelessness criminalization.
Many of our local partners, including Community Health Centers, are already advocates in this space, and as healthcare providers, they offer a unique perspective and opportunity to partner with housing advocates in this work.
Per Rhonda Hauff, CEO at Yakima Neighborhood Health Services:
“Yakima Neighborhood Health Services adopted housing as a critical component of health care twenty years ago, when our providers came to us and said ‘if you want us to improve the health of our patients, help them get a roof over their heads…’ and we have been involved in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) ever since. PSH is about low-barrier housing first, and then intensive case management to achieve improved health and self-sufficiency.
Once a PSH client gets housed, they can become “invisible”, so showing success can be difficult. It’s important to tell these stories to your local policy makers to demonstrate the cost effectiveness of PSH – how it compares to the cost of leaving people on the streets, both economically and morally. Working with local coalitions to promote local housing sales tax creates more affordable housing for whole communities – more middle-income housing results in more low-income housing being available!”
Access to housing and positive health outcomes are deeply connected, thus we are excited to partner with other housing providers in this work whether that’s through policy advocacy, partnership development, funding opportunities, or direct support with our team of community health workers.
To learn more, see our previously released Health and Housing Partnership toolkit. If you are a member interested in getting connected to housing supports and resources please see our Community Supports Services program.
For questions, please contact Rachel B, Health and Housing Program Manager at [email protected].
Image: From left: Rachel Briegel (CHPW Health Systems Innovations Program Manager), Rhonda Hauff (YNHS CEO), Michael Vachon (YNHS Director of Strategic Initiatives), Chris Newman (YNHS COO), Daniel Smith (CHPW Regional Manager)”
Resources and ways to take action
Please see the below links to for additional state and national housing advocacy resources.
