Gov. Jay Inslee points to the work his homeless encampment initiative has done to clear encampments and transition people into housing. Last December, Inslee released his budget proposals surrounding housing and homelessness programs at the site of a former encampment in Seattle. (Laurel Demkovich/Washington State Standard)
Washington’s work cleaning up encampments along state highways is helping get unsheltered people into housing.
But the state Department of Transportation says expanding the program and maintaining its progress will require more money.
In the two years since the right-of-way safety initiative launched, the department has helped close 47 encampment sites in five counties. Two of the 49 originally targeted sites are still active.
At the end of August, 1,208 people living in the encampments accepted housing, and 891 are still in housing, according to the department.
But without more funding, “progress made on cleared sites will be lost,” according to a letter to the Office of Financial Management highlighting the department’s unmet needs. The department did not specifically request more funding for the project in its budget proposal but urged the governor to consider including it in his proposal, which he will release by the end of the year.
“The ultimate goal is to expand these efforts as more funding and resources allow,” Kris Abrudan at the department told the Washington State Transportation Commission on Tuesday.
The program involves the Department of Transportation working with other state agencies and local organizations to identify people living on encampments, move them into housing, offer them other services, clean up the land and monitor it to avoid future encampments.
The program has received criticism for its high price tag. The Legislature allocated $143 million to fund the program when it launched.
Last year, Gov. Jay Inslee asked the Legislature for another $10 million to continue the work, but lawmakers only set aside $2 million in the last budget, and the department now says they only have about $5.5 million to work with through 2027.
At the end of the last session, Inslee said future legislators would need to address the lack of funding so the state can continue the program.
So far, the program has only operated in the state’s largest counties: King, Pierce, Thurston, Snohomish and Spokane. The 49 identified sites represent only a fraction of the acres managed by the department, Abrudan said. In total, the state owns 100,000 acres of vegetated rights of way.
Abrudan said the department wants to expand the program to more counties but that will be up to the Legislature and the incoming governor.
“We hope that this will be as much of a priority for the incoming administration as much as it has been for the Inslee administration,” Carl Schroeder, deputy director of government affairs at the Association of Washington Cities, told the Transportation Commission.
He said there is also a hope that the encampment resolution model expands to the city level to allow them to deal with their properties similarly.
Ongoing challenges
Keeping roadsides free of encampments takes more than a fence, Abrudan said. It requires someone in the department or the state patrol to monitor them as well, which can be costly.
As part of the program, the state has purchased hotels and other facilities that can be turned into emergency or temporary housing.
So far, there’s only been one-time funding dedicated to cover the initial purchases of buildings, Schroeder said. But he pointed out that keeping those facilities maintained is also expensive and that many housing providers will need money for upkeep for years to come.
“We want to see the program expanded but also ensure that the preexisting investments continue to bear fruit,” he said.
Overall, Washington does not have enough housing spots for people to move into, which poses further difficulties for the encampment clearing program.
“We don’t have the housing to address large sites like we have in the past,” Abrudan said.