BILL REQ. #:  H-1660.2 

Read first time 02/14/11.   Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

     AN ACT Relating to funding supportive housing services; creating new sections; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that providing supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals who are the highest users of public crisis services results in improved outcomes for the served individuals and the public. The legislature recognizes that these individuals incur large costs through frequent use of hospital emergency departments, detoxification and sobering facilities, and jails. The legislature also finds that providing supportive housing facilities for these individuals presents a valuable benefit that improves public health and safety and reduces public spending, particularly in the medicaid program.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   (1) The sums of one million dollars for fiscal year 2012 and one million dollars for fiscal year 2013, or as much thereof as may be necessary, are appropriated from the state general fund to the department of commerce solely for purposes of supportive housing as described in this section.
     (2) The department of commerce shall use amounts appropriated in this section to contract for two geographically dispersed supportive housing facilities comprising a combined total of at least one hundred units. Such units must be targeted for use by chronically homeless individuals who are the highest users of public crisis services.
     (3) For purposes of this section, "supportive housing" means housing that is available for lease to, and intended for, chronically homeless individuals with mental illness, chemical dependency, or other disabling or chronic health conditions, at which supportive services are provided on site that are designed to assist tenants in achieving and sustaining housing stability, but where participation in such services is not a condition of ongoing tenancy.
     (4) The department of commerce shall ensure that the individuals selected for residency in the supportive housing will have the characteristics and service utilization patterns known to be associated with significant cost offsets once the individuals are housed.
     (5) The legislature finds that investments in supportive housing will result in prompt and near-term savings in medical assistance expenditures on behalf of those individuals served by supportive housing. For this reason, it is the intent of the legislature to offset appropriations for supportive housing in this section with a corresponding reduction in medical assistance appropriations in the 2011-2013 fiscal biennium operating appropriations act.
     (6) It is the intent of the legislature that amounts appropriated in this section be considered ongoing rather than one-time and shall carry forward into the operating budget for the 2013-2015 fiscal biennium.