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Homeless Plan and Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act
The Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act ( RCW 43.185C) passed in 2005 requires counties to:
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Develop a ten-year plan to reduce homelessness by 50 percent by 2015.
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Conduct an annual point in time count of homeless persons.
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Report progress implementing plans annually to CTED.
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Use the local portion of document recording fees ($20.2 million per year) to reduce homelessness.
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Implement a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to collect client data used to measure program, county and state performance.
The Act requires CTED to:
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Work with the Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) and Affordable Housing Advisory Board (AHAB) to develop a ten-year plan to reduce homelessness by 50 percent by 2015.
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Coordinate the annual point in time count.
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Produce an annual report on the performance measures used to measure state and local plan implementation.
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Provide technical assistance to counties.
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Pass through most of the state portion of document recording fees ($8.6 million per year) to local governments to reduce homelessness.
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Implement Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) to collect client data used to measure program, county and state performance.
Use of Funds
In 2005 ESSHB 2163 created a $10 document recording fee to fund local and state implementation of the Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act. Sixty percent of the funds stay with the counties and 40 percent go to CTED.
In 2007 ESSHB 1359 added an additional $8 document recording fee to help with Act implementation, with 90 percent staying with counties and 10 percent going to CTED.
The combined $18 in recording fee allocations results in 74 percent of the funds collected ($20.2 million per year) staying in counties to support local efforts to reduce homelessness.
The remaining 26 percent of the funds collected ($8.6 million per year) are remitted to the Home Security Fund managed by CTED. Eighty-four percent of the funds managed by CTED are being passed back to county governments to support local projects to reduce homelessness. Funds not passed back to counties are being used to implement the intensive data collection, performance measurement, planning, technical assistance and program management required by the Act.
Local ten year plans to address homelessness (Section 8)
County governments are responsible for creating ten year plans to address homelessness. Progress toward meeting the goals of the local plan must be assessed annually, including progress toward meeting performance measures established by CTED.
County ten year plans can be found at http://housing-information.net/files/final_local_plans Please let us know if your county has a more recently updated ten year plan.
Annual Homeless Census (Section 6)
CTED will annually conduct a count of homeless persons. CTED will determine the data to be collected.
Annual Point In Time count guidelines, forms, instructions and other information can be found at http://www.cted.wa.gov/PIT.
Information and Referral System and Case Management (Section 6)
CTED shall implement an online information and referral system to identify available housing for homeless persons by 2009. CTED will work with local governments and housing providers to develop capacity for continuous case management of homeless persons (cross-agency electronic case files).
Local government participation in Act (Section 12)
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While county governments are responsible for adopting ten year plans to address homelessness and administering their portion of the recording fee revenue, a city can assert responsibility for developing a plan and administering Act revenue within its borders if it chooses.
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In the event a county declines to participate, CTED will receive the revenue normally due to any county opting out of participation. CTED will contract out the funding due to that county to carry out the provisions of the act in that county.
Annual County Report
Under the Act counties are required to report to CTED annually on the progress of the implementation of their ten year plans.
Contact Information
A list of county Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act contacts can be found here.
For a homeless education liaison contact list by school district click here.
If you have questions concerning the Act, please email Tedd Kelleher or call (360) 725-2930.
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