2/16/2023

As of Feb. 15, there were an estimated 108 people still living at the camp, down from 124 on Jan. 23 and an estimated peak of more than 600 this past summer.

The camp is also literally shrinking, with officials moving the fencing around Camp Hope inwardby roughly 45 feet last week. The camp is located on land owned by the state Department of Transportation.

“While this is encouraging news, more work lies ahead to ensure residents get the support and best chance to be successful moving inside,” the agency wrote in a news release. “Some of the more easily placed residents have moved off site or found other lodging options, while some of those remaining may have multiple challenges or barriers to permanent housing.”

Emry Dinman can be reached at (509) 459-5472 or by email at emryd@spokesman.com.

State Senate OKs reduction in building requirements for smaller condo projects

Proponents say it could lower costs

By Elena Perry THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Condominiums with fewer than 12 units and fewer than three stories would be exempt from certain requirements prior to construction if a bipartisan bill passes in the state Legislature this session.

Condo developers would no longer be mandated to submit a building design document to construction authorities prior to obtaining a permit to build.

Constructors also wouldn’t haveto complete inspections during constriction or ahead of conveyance of units. Condos meeting the criteria for this exemption would be held to the same building standards of single-family homes or townhouses, said bill sponsor Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley.

Homeownership in Washington is slightly higher than the national average at over 66% in 2022. Washington’s homeowner vacancy rate is 0.4%, 50% below the national average. Padden said he sponsored this bill to expand homeownership and affordability.

“We’ve seen in my district a huge number of multifamily apartments being built. There’s certainly a place for them, but a lot of those folks would like to be able to get into homeownership, so anything we can do to make it more affordable is going to be helpful,” Padden said.

Padden’s bill passed the Senate in a unanimous vote on Wednesday. Next, it will be introduced and sent to a committee in the House of Representatives.

The bill has momentum, and Padden said he is “encouraged” by the unanimous support from his chamber and representatives from Spokane government.

In general, condos tend to have a lower price than single-family homes, leading them to be a more affordable alternative for firsttime homebuyers. If passed, the bill would further cut costs associated with inspections in certain condos, which would in turn make condos cheaper for prospective homebuyers, Padden said.

“For first-time home buyers, condominiums provide an affordable path to entering the housing market and beginning to build equity,” Spokane Valley Councilmember Arne Woodard said.

Benefits to homeownership are extensive, supporters said. When starting a new business, homeowners often seek a home equity loan, in which they receive a loan at the amount of the difference between the value of their home and what they owe on the mortgage.

“People don’t always realize this, but the No. 1 way small businesses are financed is from an equity loan from a residence, be it a condo or a single-family home,” Padden said.

Requirements of construction for condominiums can be expensive and time-consuming for contractors to reach, and supporters said they apply more toward larger construction projects not included in this bill. Smaller projects that this bill applies to are built similarly to townhouses and single-family homes,so supporters said building requirements should reflect this.

Opponents of this legislation express concerns that by forgoing the submission of a building design document, condos may be built with lower quality, particularly when it comes to weatherproofing buildings.

“Including the design document shows that there’s an intent to build in accordance with the code and to keep water out of these buildings,” said Anthony Rafel, with the Washington State Chapter of Community Association Institute.

Rafel said he is OK with loosening the requirement for the inspection because that’s a significant cost. But he said requiring the documents helps maintain quality for not much expense.

Supporters are confident that condos built today can withstand the test of Washington’s weather.

“Since the requirements went into effect in 2005, the practice has generally changed so that we are not seeing designs that are going to lead to water damage,” said Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, chair of the Senate Law and Justice Committee.

Supporters of this legislation are hopeful it will continue to advance homeownership in the state, opening up more affordable options for residents.

“People feel good if they have a piece of the action,” Padden said. “It’s good for their future and it’s good for both individuals and families.”

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KXLY

Spokane city leaders to adopt new 'collaborative' approach to tackling homelessness in special meeting

Destiny Richards

Spokane City Council to hold special meeting at city hall on Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 11 a.m.

SPOKANE, Wash. --- Even as Camp Hope shrinks, homelessness and lack of diverse housing options continues to be an issue.

That's according to the Washington Department of Transportation as it reports 108 people now living at the camp -- 20 people fewer than last week.

At a special meeting at Spokane City Hall on Thursday, Feb. 16, city leaders will be discussing a new approach to taking on the housing and homeless crisis.

The meeting is at 11 a.m. and according to the agenda, there are plans to “establish a regional, collaborative effort to effectively manage homelessness and its impacts in the Spokane region.”

Goals include "bringing the community together around this critical issue, depoliticizing regional homelessness operational and funding decisions and integrating and coordinating management, data, services, facilities and financial resources to address homelessness in an efficient and strategic manner."

City leaders are adopting a 90-day due diligence period to focus on this.

While it is a closed-door executive session, in a join statement, they say there will be opportunities for community input during the 90-day period through public forums and a website.

See the full agenda with more details here.

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The Center Square

Initial results for Seattle’s social housing authority measure reveal no clear-winners yet

(The Center Square) – The initial results for a social housing authority measure in Seattle show 53% in favor of passing with 47% opposed so far.

Approximately 102,000 out of 480,571 (21%) registered Seattle voters have been counted following the initial election results.

City of Seattle Initiative Measure 135 would create a public development authority to develop and maintain mixed-income social housing developments. The authority would finance the housing developments through municipal bonding and “wouldn’t take resources away from existing affordable housing,” according to a submission in favor of the measure by Rep. Frank Chopp (D-Seattle).

Seattle would be required to provide 18 months of support to establish the authority, including at minimum office space, staffing, supplies, insurance and bonding.

If any funding from subsequent city support became available to the authority, it would be at the Seattle City Council’s discretion.

The housing developer would build permanently affordable housing in which no one spends more than 30% of their income on rent, according to the measure.

Seattle Resident Jessie Meyer said that he cast his vote for the special election, although he did not know about the measure until he received it in the mail.

“I definitely had to do a little research but I feel good that I know what I voted for,” Meyer said to The Center Square in a phone call.

From what Meyer gathered in his research, it seemed to him “like there were some mixed opinions [on the measure] even from within liberal groups.”

Initiative Measure 135 was the only proposition on the ballot. Seamus Kearney, who also lives in Seattle, chose not to cast his vote for the measure. He said that since it was not a “normal” election, it was not a priority for him.

“I didn't even know what the ballot was for,” Kearney said to The Center Square. “I figure if it was significant to my life going forward then I probably would have known what it was about.”

Meyer and Kearney both said that they believe the city needs more affordable housing, regardless of the measure.

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RangeMedia

Legislature debates broad tenant protections

Contributor

Part 2: Improving conditions for renters. After a decade of punting, the legislature (finally!) seems to be taking the housing crisis seriously.

By Anthony Gill, Spokane Rising

In this two-part series, we’re tackling the most influential housing bills currently under consideration in Olympia.

Part 1 explored bills that make it easier to build housing, generally by reducing barriers to construction of new housing, but also by directly funding construction of new affordable housing.

Here in Part 2, we’re examining bills that improve conditions for renters, generally by increasing tenant protections and instituting new rules on when landlords can raise rent on their tenants — and what rights tenants have when rent goes up.

Spokane’s hotly-debated (but frankly, fairly minor) tenant protection ordinanceremains stalled until at least February 27, but the state legislature has made housing affordability — including rental justice — one of its priorities this year.

Spokane’s tenant protection ordinance would require landlords to hold a business license, ensure legal representation for tenants at risk of eviction, create a portable credit and background check system, enforce clear standards for habitability and housing quality and protect tenants from landlord retaliation.

This package includes some important provisions — particularly those regarding housing quality and code enforcement. But compared to the renter protections in other Washington cities and the types of protection that only the state government can provide, it falls short.

The legislature could help fill in the gaps with strong housing-justice bills. Legislators are considering laws that would cap move-in fees, require six months’ notice for large rent increases, create a statewide rental registry and unleash the state attorney general’s office on bad landlords. There’s even a bill that would cap rent increases at no more than inflation or 7% — whichever is lower.

Together, these laws would give Washington some of the strongest renter protections in the country. So, without further ado, let’s dig into the most promising tenant protection laws under consideration this session.

1. Require more notice for rent increases

Among the tenant protections under consideration this year in the legislature, perhaps the most promising is HB 1124, which would provide additional notice for rent increases.

Under this bill, landlords would be required to provide at least 6 months’ notice and allow tenants out of their leases if they issue rent increases in excess of 5%. Given that many Spokane tenants frequently receive one-month notice or less for increases of 25% or more, this could make a big difference for local renters. The bill would also reduce late fees for rent payments to no more than $75.

This bill has already passed the House Committee on Housing and is awaiting action in the Rules Committee, which could send it to the House floor. Right now, it has strong support in the House, with 18 cosponsors, including both of Spokane’s representatives (Marcus Riccelli and Timm Ormsby), but the bill faces significant opposition from the landlord lobby.

2. Stop abuse of security deposits

Have you ever wondered where the money from your security deposit goes after you’ve moved out and received a check for less than you expected? So have your legislators.

Under HB 1074, landlords would have about another week to return your security deposit (30 days instead of 21 days), but they would have to provide actual documentation about the cost of any damages for which they withhold funds — for example, repair estimates, invoices or receipts. The bill would also prohibit landlords from withholding tenant deposits for standard activities completed after a tenant moves out, like carpet cleaning.

This bill has already passed the House Committee on Housing and is awaiting action in the Rules Committee, which could send it to the House floor. This bill has fewer cosponsors than the others outlined so far. But in part because it seems so straightforward and obvious, I think it has a good chance of passing this year.

3. Create a statewide rental property registry

Many advocates — both among tenant organizers and housing advocates more generally — lament the lack of adequate data on rental and vacancy rates in our state. (That said, all indications are that Spokane’s apartment vacancy rate is around 1.1%, which is well below the 5% vacancy that housing experts consider a “balanced” market.)

SB 5060 requires most rental property owners to register their housing units with the Department of Commerce for a small per-unit fee and provide statistics on monthly rental rates. Landlords would be expected to update this data regularly — for large landlords, possibly as often as every couple days. Commerce, in turn, would maintain a new website tracking rental housing inventory, including, at the bare minimum, statewide rental and vacancy rates. This would give us important information about where housing supply is most constrained and where we could possibly focus most on building new housing and providing rental assistance.

Additionally, under this new law, if landlords fail to register their units with the state, they will have fewer allowable justifications for eviction. Only nuisance uses of the property, illegal activity, and other substantial or repeated behavior would be legal grounds for eviction in unregistered units. This serves as a strong incentive for landlords to register with Commerce as required.

Predictably, landlords strongly oppose this bill, for many of the same reasons they oppose Spokane’s tenant protection package. Moreover, this package of strong reforms hasn’t received much support from the general public — a recent public hearing garnered only one person (other than the bill’s sponsor) testifying in support.

A version of this bill passed the Senate Committee on Housing on February 9 and was referred to the Ways and Means Committee. The revised bill limits the bill’s effect to cities with more than 130,000 people. That means renters in cities like Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Cheney, and Airway Heights would be less protected, and we’d have less data on housing supply in those cities. The Ways & Means Committee could reverse this change.

4. Limit move-in fees and rent increases

Outside of more notice for rent increases, many tenants simply wish to see some limitations and certainty about their costs — both how much their rent can increase from year to year and how much landlords can charge to move in.

Fortunately, the legislature has two bills tackling this issue.

Under HB 1389, a tenant’s rent could not be increased within the first 12 months of tenancy. Additionally, rent could not be increased in any 12-month period by more than the consumer price index or 3%, up to a maximum of 7%. In other words, renters would be assured more stable housing costs in the long-term that do not increase faster than inflation. In Spokane, rents have increased more than 45% on average over just the past five years. If this bill had been law over the same period, the maximum increase allowed under a single tenancy would have been about 16%. That would make a big difference for Spokane families.

Simultaneously, under HB 1388, landlords would be banned from requiring more than an amount equal to one month’s rent to move into a new unit. Many landlords require payment of the first and last months’ rent, a security deposit equal to a month’s rent, and application fees before they will allow someone to move in (in other words, three times a typical month’s rent). Lowering the move-in cost could mean the difference between being able to afford a place to live and being homeless for some households.

Versions of both HB 1388 and HB 1389 passed the House Committee on Housing on February 9 and were referred to Appropriations. Most changes were technical, rather than substantive, and these remain strong bills. They also have arguably the strongest support of any tenant protection bills this session, with dozens of cosponsors. That said, there’s still significant opposition from landlords, so it is likely the fight will continue until the very end of the legislative session.

5. Unleash the attorney general on bad landlords

There’s another provision of HB 1388, which could dramatically improve enforcement of landlord-tenant law and consumer protection law when it comes to housing.

At present, the Office of the Attorney General is somewhat limited in enforcing consumer protection law in the context of housing, due to the lack of clear definition of what constitutes a “predatory practice.” This bill finally starts to define these practices, including:

Charging “excessive rent.” The bill specifically defines an excessive rent increase as any increase greater than inflation (but no more than 7%) within a 12-month period — aligning with the rent stabilization standard set by HB 1389.
Charging a higher rent or including more burdensome rental terms if a tenancy is month-to-month, compared to under a term lease.
Charging application fees, move-in fees, or security deposits that in total exceed one month’s rent.

The bill explicitly gives the AG’s office the authority to investigate predatory practices, issue cease-and-desist letters and file court actions. If a court agrees with the AG and finds that a landlord indeed engaged in predatory practices, then the landlord will be liable for civil penalties in the tens of thousands per violation. Tenants will also have the right to sue landlords for predatory practices and could recover not just the excess rent they paid, but also punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

This package of reforms would give the Office of the Attorney General a powerful stick to enforce consumer protection law and finally hold bad landlords accountable. As mentioned above, a version of HB 1388 passed the House Committee on Housing last week and now awaits action in Appropriations.

6. See you in (housing) court

While it would benefit tenants if the AG’s office had a bigger stick to keep law-breaking landlords in line, a separate pilot housing court program would create a less adversarial option to resolve landlord-tenant disputes. SB 5707 creates specialized housing courts where judges and staff get special training to work through disputes between renters and property owners. The goal of the program is to move landlord-tenant disputes through a mediation or settlement process. A separate but similar initiative called the Eviction Resolution Pilot Program is set to end in July, but showed real success in resolving landlord-tenant disputes in a way that allowed 94% of participants to remain in their housing.

Perhaps drafting off the feel good Valentine’s Day vibes, this bill had its first public reading at 10:30 this morning. The bill is scheduled for executive session in the Senate Committee on Law and Justice on February 16.

How to get involved

If you’d like to get involved and support renter justice laws in the legislature and across the state, check out the Washington State Low-Income Housing Alliance, which is organizing advocates in support of many of the bills mentioned above. You should also check out the Tenants’ Union of Washington, which is organizing for the ordinance under consideration at the Spokane City Council.

You can also offer direct public comment on each Bill Information page linked above, or sign in “pro” (or "con") in advance of a committee public hearing.

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The Wall St Journal

The VA Program That Has Homelessness Down Among Veterans

Advocates attribute success to a well-funded ‘housing first’ policy

Ben KeslingFeb. 14, 2023 at 10:00 am ET

The approach is in full swing in a program that operates out of a nondescript brick building in an industrial area of Denver. Lauren Lapinski, a licensed clinical social worker with the Department of Veterans Affairs, arrived at Denver’s VA Community Resource and Referral Center before dawn one day earlier this month—after having been up late the night before canvassing strip malls and alleys as part of an annual homeless count.

The intense focus on finding and connecting with veterans and providing supportive services has worked—the number of homeless veterans in the metro Denver area dropped more than 30% over the last two years, according to Metro Denver Homeless Initiative.

The VA Community Resource and Referral Center in Denver.Photo: Rachel Woolf for The Wall Street Journal

“The most important thing is having a passionate person who will show up when they say they’ll show up,” Ms. Lapinski said of her fellow outreach employees.

Homelessness among veterans has been a longstanding problem for the VA. Veterans are homeless at a higher rate than the civilian population across the country, and often deal with service-related trauma and health conditions that make their situations more complex.

In 2009, following an uptick in veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan falling into homelessness, the VA implemented a more aggressive approach to finding and giving aid to homeless veterans. The Biden administration has stepped up the program, to good effect: In 2022 there was an 11% decrease in veteran homelessness, the sharpest drop in many years.

The “housing first” strategy is focused on getting homeless people housed and then working to address issues that might have led to their destitution. It is considered a best practice among advocates for homeless people and doesn’t require a person to be sober or have a job or get treatment to qualify for shelter; those issues are addressed after the person is housed.

“If we say you need to come to us and that you need to fit this mold and jump through hoops or we can’t help you, then we are going to lose people,” said Kristin Toombs, director of Colorado’s state office of homeless initiatives, which coordinates with the VA.

The program focuses on locating veterans, maintaining contact with them and providing services when they are ready. Over three dozen VA community resource and referral centers exist across the country, largely designed to operate in large metropolitan areas in coordination with local agencies that focus on reducing homelessness.

Brandy Stephenson, a 43-year-old Navy veteran, said that she had a good job for years as a medical coder but that her worsening addiction to alcohol and cocaine caused her to lose all that last June.

“I’ve worked my entire life and addiction got in the way and I lost everything,” said Ms. Stephenson, who bounced from inpatient treatment to transitional housing and hotels in Charlotte, N.C., finally to a spare room in her sister’s home in Kansas City, Mo.

Ms. Stephenson said she had no idea about many of the veterans benefits available to her until she showed up on her own at a VA facility in Salisbury, N.C., and said a knowledgeable and dedicated case worker in Charlotte took up her cause.

Construction and development in Denver. Photo: Rachel Woolf for The Wall Street Journal

In Denver, outreach workers find and connect with veterans through a city database that VA employees use to track all 462 known homeless veterans in the area. The technology lets them see in real time when veterans seek services, affording the VA another chance to connect with them.

Homeless veterans can use the facility’s private showers and meet with case managers or primary-care clinicians. A veteran can claim a small cubby behind a locked door, a coveted place where important possessions won’t be pilfered.

When a homeless veteran is ready, the VA has ample resources to offer. It budgeted more than $8.2 billion for homelessness efforts in 2022. It has one of the largest healthcare systems in the country, federally guaranteed benefits and has longstanding support in Congress and the White House.

Housing vouchers known as HUD-VASH are the core of the program. With them, a homeless veteran can often get housing from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and other services from the VA, which include help working with landlords, coordinating mental and physical healthcare and getting basic needs such as phone and internet service. At the Denver center, veterans can find health services, employment assistance, transportation and other services to help them feel secure in the housing.

The VA approach is working nationwide: Counts of the homeless population, done every January, show veteran homeless numbers declined by 17% to about 33,000 in the five years between 2017 and early 2022. In the same span of time, overall U.S. homelessness increased 5.7%, federal data show.

Missy Mish, a program manager with the VA, walks with VA Secretary Denis McDonough, as they look for people experiencing homelessness in Colorado.Photo: Rachel Woolf for The Wall Street Journal

VA Secretary Denis McDonough joined Ms. Lapinski and others Jan. 31 for the point-in-time count. That night Mr. McDonough met a man who said he had been a Marine Corps infantryman and even though he had a job was unable to afford housing. That Marine was assigned to a case worker who began engaging with him the next day.

Mr. McDonough acknowledged that rising housing prices have made it difficult for all programs serving homeless people. There are now more delays in getting veterans into housing.

Ms. Stephenson, the veteran living in Kansas City, applied for HUD-VASH and is still waiting for housing.

“I’m a determined person and I want to be in this position as short of a time as necessary,” she said.

Write to Ben Kesling at ben.kesling@wsj.com