Report to the Community

I’m proud to share our 2026 Report to the Community with you. It reflects another year of bold and strategic advocacy, with results that will impact people and communities all across Washington. 

There’s no doubt that we’re in a challenging time, filled with deep uncertainty about the future of our country. Over much of the last year, our federal advocacy was dominated by fighting back against attempts to discredit and defund the most effective solutions to homelessness. Collective advocacy and legal challenges have stopped the administration from immediately undoing decades of progress, but the fight is ongoing. At the same time the administration is using the rule making process to attack immigrant households and transgender people, evict people more quickly, and roll back other important protections for people who count on federal housing assistance . 

Here in Washington, we continue to face a state budget shortfall that makes our advocacy more important than ever, but also more difficult. And while we’ve banned the most egregious rent gouging, housing costs are still greatly outpacing incomes, and eviction filings are higher than ever. 

For those of us who are impatient for housing justice, it can feel like we’re losing. But consider: 

• The Trump administration tried to implement some of the same harmful housing policies during his last term, and a massive outpouring of opposition stopped it. 

• The President proposed a 2026 budget that slashed affordable housing and homelessness funding by 40%, but when Congress finally passed a budget in February, it increased that funding over last year. 

• In Washington, we secured more than $800 million for affordable housing in the last two-year budget and increased funding for the Right to Counsel program to prevent evictions. 

• Over the last several years, we’ve made extraordinary improvements in housing policy – statewide Just Cause eviction protection, providing lawyers for low-income tenants in eviction court, capping annual rent increases, and more. This year, we won the fight to bar local governments from putting up discriminatory barriers to keep shelter, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing out of their communities. 

None of this happened by accident. It happened because people across Washington, and all across the country, organized, showed up, and refused to accept that housing instability and homelessness are inevitable. The challenges ahead are real, and the stakes couldn’t be higher, but we’re building power every year. Every time someone speaks up for housing justice, and every time someone new joins the fight, our collective power grows. Thank you for standing with us in this work! 

Sincerely,
Rachael Myers
Executive Director