By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent
On February 14, about 18 Jewish advocates joined an estimated 500 others on a trip to Olympia to give a nondenominational valentine to the state’s homeless. The group visited the Capitol to lobby lawmakers to increase funding in the two-year budget to support programs aimed at providing affordable permanent and transitional housing.
Members of the Puget Sound Jewish Coalition on Homelessness formed a visible Jewish presence at the lobbying day, carrying a sign to identify the group at the morning rally and sporting nametags branded with the organization’s name. After the morning rally, addressed by Gov. Christine Gregoire and several homeless advocates, they fanned out through the day to contact legislators in what looks to be a successful effort.
Carolyn Cohen, a University of Washington student involved with the group, reported that Jewish participants who came separately approached members to express their appreciation for bringing an identifiable Jewish presence to the push for homeless assistance. In addition to the name tags, all the advocates, Jews and Gentiles alike, wore red ponchos as they visited the legislators’ offices throughout the day, to set themselves apart as homeless-program citizen-lobbyists.
The Sunday before, PSJCH had met in Seattle, where they heard from Ben Gitenstein, executive director of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance and the principal organizer for this year’s advocacy day.
“He gave us the up-to-the minute report on the status of homelessness-related legislation, and helped [to] prepare us for participating,” Cohen said. Nine Jewish communal organizations were represented at that meeting: Temple Beth Shalom, Sha’arei Tefillah, Temple Beth Am, Seattle Jewish Community School, Temple B’nai Torah, Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation, Tikvah Hadasha, te Secular Jewish Circle, and Congregation Eitz Or. At that meeting, members wrote to their legislators, identifying themselves both as a member of PSJCH and their respective institutions.
Once at the Capitol, the contingent broke into groups based on legislative district to meet with their elected representatives or legislative aides, and to request support on measures that affect the state’s homeless.
They also hand-delivered more than 30 letters written by PSJCH members to 14 different legislators, and letters written by all the students in the Seattle Jewish Community School 4th grade class.
“In sum, a Jewish presence was felt on this critical civic issue,” Cohen said. “We think it is very exciting to have such a transdenominational range of Jews, from Chabad to Conservative to Renewal working together on a purely civic issue.”
The goal of the advocacy efforts, according to Gitenstein, was to boost the state’s investment in affordable housing through the state’s Housing Trust Fund, which was originally established by the Legislature in 1987 to help communities meet the housing needs of low-income and special needs populations.
Gitenstein said Gov. Gregoire’s budget included $50 million over the next two years for the trust fund, which the state House of Representatives boosted to $90 million. The Senate later adopted its own budget proposal, which matched the governor’s plan for the trust fund contribution. Gitenstein said that the Senate’s version also allocated the housing funds in a way that advocates see as less beneficial than that proposed in the House version.
“The Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day 2008 was undoubtedly the most successful event we’ve ever had, by leaps and bounds,” said Gitenstein. “This is the 14th year we’ve done it, and we had the biggest turnout we’ve ever had. We had a really wonderful and inspiring day of advocates going to the Capitol and pulling their legislators off the floor and really up-close-and-personal advocacy.”
He said the results “are fabulous in a way, but still undetermined.” House and Senate leaders were not scheduled to meet with Gov. Gregoire’s representative to come up with a final number for the fund before JTNews went to press. He acknowledged that the state’s latest budget projections, which came out since the lobbying effort, have predicted a lower surplus for the state budget in 2008-09 than was previously expected. Still, he noted, that is a far cry from projecting a budget deficit for the next biennium.
“We feel the House budget is a historic commitment that would make real progress,” Gitenstsein said. “We believe the [Senate budget and the governor’s budget] made a good start, but we believe they could do more. The House showed that they could do more.”
While Gitenstein praised the House’s efforts, all of the legislative chambers’ proposed budgets fell short of the $100 million that homeless advocates had hoped to see added to the trust fund.
Despite the lower budget numbers, Gitenstein said it is still likely that the final number for the Housing Trust Fund in the state budget could be a compromise between the House and Senate figures. Between now and the end of the legislative session, Gitenstein recommends that people concerned about this issue call their legislators and press them to put as much money as possible into the trust fund accounts.
The trust fund supports the construction, acquisition or rehabilitation of over 2,200 units of affordable housing every year and helps communities rehabilitate existing houses and apartments. The law ensures that housing receiving Housing Trust Fund funding remains affordable for at least 40 years. The Housing Trust Fund also goes toward special-needs housing for program clients of both the Department of Social and Health Services and the Department of Health.