A home should be a refuge from worry, not the cause of it

Senate Democrats’ focus for the coming legislative session will be on the pocketbook issues we see so many people struggling with.

We understand Washington families are feeling a lot of financial insecurity right now because of rising costs for housing, health care, and other essentials. We want Washington families to know that there are things their Legislature can do to address this reality.

One area where people are feeling especially insecure is in housing.

A home should be a refuge from worry – not a cause of it. Senate Democrats will do all we can to eliminate the worry that many families feel right now about losing their home.

We got a start on our robust housing agenda during the one-day special session two weeks ago, when the Senate Democrats took the lead in passing a bill that allows over 5,000 homeowners to defer payment of half their property taxes until they sell their homes.

That doesn’t solve the whole problem, but it sure will help those 5,000 struggling homeowners. More property tax reform proposals for the regular session that will have a real impact on the tax bills of working families could include:

• a homestead exemption, which would allow families to exempt a portion of their homes’ value from the calculation of their property taxes, and
• a circuit breaker, which would cap families’ tax bills at a percentage of their household incomes.

And that’s just the beginning. Senate and House Democrats and the Governor are working together on a series of measures to:

• Protect consumers by reforming mortgage and subprime lending;
• Create more affordable housing;
• Prevent and end homelessness, and
• Reform and improve government housing programs.

On December 17, the Governor and legislative leaders on housing announced the following key elements of our housing agenda.

1. Provide free education and counseling to 2,500 home buyers and people who are facing possible foreclosure.

Financing a house is so complicated most of us need help to understand what our options are – and having that help can save thousands of dollars. It can also give people threatened with foreclosure accurate information about their options, and prevent them from losing their home equity.

This will be followed with new consumer protection legislation to tighten up standards and increase borrower protections for non-traditional mortgages.

2. Increase the lending capacity of the Housing Finance Commission so that housing for 11,640 more low- and moderate-income families can be built.

3. Increase funding for the Housing Trust Fund to help flood victims and to fund a revolving loan account that communities can use to secure land for affordable housing development.

4. Provide a one-time funding package for the Washington Families Fund, which leverages private contributions to provide housing and supportive services to prevent and alleviate homelessness. This will allow them to serve an additional 1,000 families for three years. (The most recent estimate is that 3,147 families in our state are now homeless, and this is believed to be less than the actual number.)

5. Create a “rapid response” fund to help local housing providers buy land when it comes on the market, so that it can be preserved for affordable housing and mobile home parks. This is especially important in gentrifying areas such as White Center and certain parts of Spokane.

And there’s more. We also plan to:

• crack down on fraudulent and predatory lending practices and foreclosure rescue scams,
• find ways to provide more affordable housing closer to where people work,
• pursue meaningful property tax reform that benefits middle, moderate, and low-income families,
• find ways to increase the rate of home ownership in our state, and
• improve government housing programs to make them more efficient and able to respond quickly to emerging needs.

Everyone should have a place to call home. Everyone should have access to affordable housing in the community where they work. No one should have to live in fear of losing the roof over their families’ heads.

In this holiday season, all of us wish our neighbors a happy new year. Those of us who have the honor of serving in the Democratic majority in the Legislature are going to work very hard to make that wish come true. We will start by doing all we can to make affordable, comfortable housing available for everyone in our state.