H-2249.1 _______________________________________________
SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2161
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State of Washington 52nd Legislature 1991 Regular Session
By House Committee on Housing (originally sponsored by Representatives Franklin, Ebersole, Winsley, Ogden, Mitchell, Nelson, Leonard, Braddock, Ballard, Orr, Jones, Cole, Rasmussen and Anderson).
Read first time March 6, 1991.
AN ACT Relating to the public housing trust fund; and amending RCW 43.185.010 and 43.185.050.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 43.185.010 and 1986 c 298 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
The legislature finds that current economic conditions, federal housing policies and declining resources at the federal, state, and local level adversely affect the ability of low and very low-income persons to obtain safe, decent, and affordable housing.
The legislature further finds that members of over one hundred twenty thousand households live in housing units which are overcrowded, lack plumbing, are otherwise threatening to health and safety, and have rents and utility payments which exceed thirty percent of their income.
The legislature further finds that minorities, rural households, and migrant farm workers require housing assistance at a rate which significantly exceeds their proportion of the general population.
The legislature further finds that one of the most dramatic housing needs is that of persons needing special housing-related services, such as the mentally ill, recovering alcoholics, frail elderly persons, families with members who have disabilities, and single parents. These services include medical assistance, counseling, chore services, and child care.
The legislature further finds that housing assistance programs in the past have often failed to help those in greatest need.
The legislature declares that it is in the public interest to establish a continuously renewable resource known as a housing trust fund to assist low and very low-income citizens in meeting their basic housing needs, and that the needs of very low-income citizens should be given priority.
Sec. 2. RCW 43.185.050 and 1986 c 298 s 6 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) The department shall use funds from the housing trust fund to finance in whole or in part any loans or grant projects that will provide housing for persons and families with special housing needs and with incomes at or below fifty percent of the median family income for the county or standard metropolitan statistical area where the project is located. Not less than thirty percent of such funds used in any given biennium shall be for the benefit of projects located in rural areas as defined in 63 Stat. 432, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1471 et seq.
(2) Activities eligible for assistance include, but are not limited to:
(a) New construction, rehabilitation, or acquisition of low and very low-income housing units;
(b) Rent subsidies in new construction or rehabilitated multifamily units;
(c) Matching funds for social services directly related to providing housing for special-need tenants in assisted projects;
(d) Technical assistance, design and finance services and consultation, and administrative costs for eligible nonprofit community or neighborhood-based organizations;
(e) Administrative costs for housing assistance groups or organizations when such grant or loan will substantially increase the recipient's access to housing funds other than those available under this chapter;
(f) Shelters and related services for the homeless;
(g) Mortgage subsidies for new construction or rehabilitation of eligible multifamily units;
(h) Mortgage
insurance guarantee or payments for eligible projects; ((and))
(i) Acquisition of housing units for the purpose of preservation as low-income or very low-income housing; and
(j) Making housing more accessible to families with members who have disabilities.