OLYMPIA [By: Ayeda Masood] – As the Washington legislative session is in its final week, bills that could significantly affect Washington’s homelessness and affordable housing crisis are advancing. Among these bills are HB 2266, HB 2442, and SB 6027.
Washington’s most recently released Point In Time Count from January 2025 reported 22,173 people were homeless in Washington. This number has only grown each year, with the report noting a 4.4% increase from 2024, and 4.07% increase from 2023 to 2024.
“What has been rising to the top for many years is housing affordability, the need for the state to invest deeper in homelessness prevention, homelessness solutions, affordable housing, rental protections,” Michelle Thomas, a staff lobbyist for the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance (WLIHA), said, referencing a statewide survey WLIHA conducts yearly to determine legislative priorities.
Those priorities are reflected in several bills advancing through the Legislature this session.
HB 2266
HB 2266, which passed out of the Senate this past Monday. would make it easier to build and operate shelters and supportive housing across Washington.
The bill would require cities and planning counties to allow transitional housing, permanent supportive housing (multifamily housing for people with disabilities), indoor emergency shelters and indoor emergency housing, collectively known as STEP housing, in zones where residential housing or hotels are allowed. Cities and counties would not be allowed to impose restrictions on STEP housing stricter than those applied to other residential or lodging developments. The bill would also require local governments to ensure enough STEP housing is allowed to meet projected needs identified in their comprehensive plans.
“STEP housing consistently faces barriers that other residential developments do not face,” Joe McDermott, the State Relations Director for King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, said.
McDermott listed additional required documentation, like permits, licenses, and agreements, and legislative approval as examples of potential barriers.
“These unnecessary requirements create additional costs for taxpayers, and cause delays in moving residents indoors, making homelessness more expensive,” McDermott said.
Thomas said that many of these additional barriers are based on stereotypes of people who have disabilities, especially regarding permanent supportive housing.
“Permanent supportive housing is the solution to long-term homelessness to people with chronic health conditions,” Thomas said. With the federal government attacking permanent supportive housing at the federal level, it is important that Washington does something to propel progress in ending homelessness, Thomas added.
Some local officials expressed concerns with the bill.
Virginia Clough, the Legislative Policy Coordinator for the City of Spokane, testified the bill needs to be amended. She said jurisdictions should be able to verify operational requirements for indoor emergency shelters are being met rather than simply receiving written confirmation. She also suggested that there should be more resources available to address unsafe conditions in indoor emergency shelters, such as an onsite contact.
On the Senate floor, lawmakers adopted amendments that addressed some of these concerns. Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, and Sen. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines, introduced an adopted amendment which would strengthen a requirement for more oversight in emergency shelters. Sen. Sharon Shoemake also introduced an adopted amendment which clarifies that the required on-call contact in an emergency shelter must be someone who can explicitly make decisions and fix problems.
SB 6027
While HB 2266 focuses on where housing can be built, SB 6027 and HB 2442 focus on funding.
SB 6027, which passed out of the Senate on Thursday, would broaden how existing affordable-housing revenue sources can be used, especially to keep housing units operating.
The bill expands allowable uses of the local 0.1% sales tax for housing and related services to include rehabilitation of existing affordable housing, including emergency, transitional and supportive housing, and operations and maintenance costs for affordable housing. It also expands another state-authorized local sales tax used for affordable housing to allow revenue to pay operations and maintenance for existing affordable housing units, not only newly built units.
“This will help counties address urgent funding shortfalls for operations, supportive services, and maintenance for permanent supportive housing projects,” McDermott said.
Snohomish County Councilmember Megan Dunn warned that proposed funding cuts to HUD’s Continuum of Care program could threaten stable housing for residents already housed.
“These changes could impact stable housing for up to 500 households in Snohomish County alone,” she said.
Thomas said the measure is designed to protect existing investments — the money would not be new, but it would provide flexibility for where it could go to support efforts to end and prevent homelessness.
Because SB 6027 primarily changes allowable uses of existing local tax revenue and state housing accounts, it would not affect state revenues. The bill would not close Washington’s budget gap through new revenue, but supporters argue it could help prevent housing programs from destabilizing as budgets tighten.
HB 2442
HB 2442 would expand and loosen restrictions on several local tax and revenue tools used by cities and counties.
The bill would create new local sales and use tax of 0.01% to fund services
for children and families. It would also allow certain housing-related sales tax revenues to be used for maintaining and operating existing affordable housing units, in addition to building new ones.
Local government groups said the bill would give jurisdictions more flexibility to respond to rising costs and growing service needs.
Thomas added that with the federal government threatening to delay important federal funding through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), existing affordable housing providers may not be able to continue to accept federal funds. While there have been lawsuits filed to delay these changes, outcomes are still unpredictable; HB 2442 acts as a safeguard for Washington local governments so they can support existing housing.
Critics argued the bill could increase taxes.
While both HB 2442 and SB 6027 deal with how tax revenue is used, HB 2442 has more opposition because of its larger scope and the new tax it creates.
Jeff Pack from Washington Citizens Against Unfair Taxes described the proposal as “another taxa-palooza of new taxes” during committee testimony.
Thomas said the flexibility provided by HB 2442 is important because maintaining existing housing can be just as critical as building new units.
“Costs are rising, and existing affordable housing that is safely housing people across the state needs more operating support,” Thomas said.
HB 2442 passed the House, and is currently in the Senate Rules Committee.
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Author: Washington State Journal
