Washington state’s 2017 legislative session was complicated by challenging political and fiscal dynamics. Governor Inslee called the Legislature back for three special sessions before members agreed on a state budget, which the Governor signed on June 30th, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown.

Lawmakers were required to adopt a budget that would provide adequate funding for public schools per the state Supreme Court’s 2012 McCleary Decision. To satisfy those expenses, advocates and stakeholders worried that funding for social services would be severely reduced.

Many of our supporters don’t often see what is required to protect existing policies and prevent changes that could put young people and families at risk. For the second year in a row, AWHWA faced major barriers related to differences of opinion about how to best meet the needs of youth (ages 12 through 17) and young adults (ages 18 through 24) who lack safe, stable housing.

AWHWA initially led advocacy efforts to pass HB 1630, which would have improved the quality of data on minors experiencing homelessness by giving them the option to report personally identifying information to the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). However, a key legislator added language in the Senate budget that would have denied youth services if they declined to share their information in HMIS. AWHWA responded quickly and was instrumental in playing defense, but as a consequence, the entire bill died. We also worked hard to protect specialized services for young adults, which were at risk of being combined with the system serving chronically homeless adults.

Despite these challenges and others, the final budget and a slate of new laws took important steps in the right direction.

The budget allocated $3.5 million to the state Office of Homeless Youth to support its programs. Funding will help prevent state systems of care from exiting youth and young adults to homelessness. Budget allocations will also help expand Crisis Residential Center and HOPE Center capacity to meet the immediate needs of youth experiencing homelessness.

Governor Inslee signed HB 1867 into law, which calls for an evaluation of Extended Foster Care and allows young adults to reenter the program once between the ages of 18 and 21. AWHWA and many advocates hope this will help prevent homelessness for young people transitioning out of the foster care system.

In addition, we are encouraged by the passage of HB 1661, which establishes a state Department of Children, Youth, and Families. This new agency will combine the efforts of the former Department of Early Learning, Children’s Administration, Juvenile Justice, and Juvenile Rehabilitation systems. We hope that the culture of innovation and emphasis on prevention fostered within the Department of Early Learning will be sustained in this new effort, supporting children, youth, and families to avoid crisis, housing instability, and homelessness.

AWHWA appreciated the support and dedication of our advocacy partners throughout the 2017 legislative sessions! Together we are working to build a statewide support system so that we can say “Yes!” to young people and families when they say, “Yes, I need help.”

For a more complete look at how AWHWA’s 2017 legislative priorities fared, please see the table below:

2017 Agenda Item	Session Outcome
Ensure that Youth Exiting Public Systems Have a Safe, Stable Place to Go
Establish interagency workgroup on youth homelessness	Accomplished – the interagency workgroup has been created and reports to the Governor
Pass HB 1867 to evaluate Extended Foster Care (EFC) and allow young adults to reenter 1 time	Signed into law on 5/10/17 $776,000 allocated in final budget to support additional EFC participants and fund an evaluation of the EFC program
Pass HB 1816 to improve admission practices for Crisis Residential Centers and HOPE Beds	Signed into law on 5/10/17
Invest in Crisis Intervention and Diversion from Homelessness
Improve and expand family reconciliation (FRS) and preservation (FPS) services	No money allocated in final budget for FRS $2.616 million allocated in final budget for travel reimbursement for in-home FPS
Reform status offense laws	HB 1170 signed into law on 5/16/17 SB 5293 vetoed by Governor on 5/16/17 SB 5596 did not pass SB 5563 did not pass
Improve Education and Employment Outcomes for Vulnerable Young People
Pass SB 5241 to improve high school graduation rates	Signed into law on 4/17/17
Fully implement the state Homeless Student Stability Program	Funding maintained
Designate a trained staff person in every public K-12 school to ID, support students experiencing homelessness and housing instability	No developments this session
Expand the Youth Works program	No developments this session
Provide Legal Advocacy for Foster Children and Youth
Appoint attorneys to all children and youth in foster care before their first shelter care hearing	HB 1251 and SB 5363 did not pass $1.365 million in final budget for demonstration and evaluation
Allocate Sustainable Funding
Move funding for the Office of Homeless Youth to the Dept. of Commerce’s base budget	Accomplished – all OHY funding is now part of the Commerce base budget $3.5 million allocated in final budget for OHY operations and programs
Pass HB 1570 to renew the Document Recording Fee without adding a future sunset date and restrict percentage spent on for-profit entities	Sunset of the document recording fee extended to 2023
Support Washington Youth and Families Fund	$4 million allocated to the fund
Generate new revenue for state budget	State property taxes raised Online sales tax collections expanded No new taxes on income or capital gains
Strengthen Statewide Systems of Care
Pass HB 1630 to improve data quality by allowing minors experiencing homelessness to share personally identifying information	Did not pass
Pass HB 1661 to establish a new Dept. of Children, Youth, and Families	Signed into law on 6/29/17 $6.3 million allocated in the budget