Inslee, joined by Wilkerson, proposes special office to get people living in encampments into permanent housing

OLYMPIA – Gov. Jay Inslee joined Spokane City Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson and Seattle and Tacoma leaders Thursday to talk about ways to fight the state’s housing crisis.

Specifically, Inslee is proposing creating an office tasked with transitioning people living in encampments along rights-of-way to permanent housing.

“It is a moral choice and a right choice to transition people,” Inslee told reporters. “We have come to accept this. We need to act.”

Wilkerson, King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards and Seattle City Council President Debora Juarez spoke in support of the proposal at a Thursday news conference.

The proposal would create an office within the Department of Social and Health Services specifically to transition people in encampments along rights-of-way on Department of Transportation land. It would require the Department of Commerce to provide grants to local governments or nonprofit organizations to help people living in encampments to get into permanent housing.

The bill is in the Ways and Means committee awaiting a hearing.

Wilkerson said the proposal would not only make people living in encampments safe, but the people around them.

“It allows us to be flexible,” she said. “It allows us to be nimble … to meet the needs of our own community.”

Specifically, Wilkerson said she is excited about the designated funding that comes with this proposal and others Inslee is suggesting. The funding would help local jurisdictions bolster behavioral health services, she said, and it could be “transformative.” There needs to be a “holistic” approach to fighting homelessness, she said.

Constantine said every community has seen the “all-too-common results” of rising housing costs and wages staying the same. It’s important that Inslee is using a “comprehensive services approach,” he said.

“To meet this moment of crisis, every community in our state have to do their part,” he said.

Inslee said funding can only do so much, but the state needs to partner with local governments to help with the transition, especially as homelessness is a statewide problem.

Other proposals from Inslee include increasing the middle housing cities can build. Those proposals would require cities with 20,000 or more people to allow duplexes, triplexes and other types of middle housing on land zoned for single-family housing.

Inslee said a lot of what he’s proposed this session is to build more housing, something he wants to get done as quickly as possible.