Democratic WA Governor; Former Rep/ (WA-1); withdrew from Presidential primary Aug. 2019
Addressing homelessness with $1B toward new housing
People-focused policies are also how we're addressing homelessness. Washingtonians can see that dozens of encampments along our highways are gone and that'll continue if we make the necessary investments. And they're going to
see thousands more new housing units thanks to our work as well. I want to thank this Legislature for going big on housing last session and trusting that it was a necessary decision to put $1 billion toward new housing already this biennium.
Source: 2024 State of the State Address to Washington legislature
, Jan 9, 2024
$4B to speed up construction of new housing and shelters
Until we fix our housing crisis thousands of people will remain homeless. This is why I'm proposing a $4 billion referendum that will significantly speed up the construction of thousands of new units that will include shelters, supportive housing
and affordable housing. This will be combined with additional behavioral health support, substance use treatment, employment services and more. We know substance use treatment and mental health support can work when you combine it with stable housing.
Source: 2023 State of the State Address to the Wash. legislature
, Jan 10, 2023
Wrap-around services critical in addressing homelessness
My supplemental budget includes an unprecedented $815 million investment in safe housing for those experiencing homelessness. This budget would also increase behavioral health services, continuing my administration's successful investments in these
life-changing programs. All of us know that wrap-around services are critical to helping people out of long-term homelessness. It is fundamental that people not only get a roof over their heads but get access to such services.
We also have to realize we need more opportunities for everyone when it comes to housing. We can't get more housing if there's nowhere to build it. We cannot tell our constituents we are fighting homelessness and yet
not provide ways to build more housing. That means we must allow housing that meets the realities of our tremendous population and economic growth this century.
Homelessness reaches all ages, all races, all backgrounds. Responding to homelessness can't mean moving people down the road, to someone else's city or to the next bridge. It's about giving them the tools and resources they need to get back on their
feet. It's about prevention, it's about rent assistance and it's about supportive housing for our most vulnerable individuals. Our goal is to reduce by half the number of people living outdoors in the next two years.
Source: 2020 Washington State of the State address
, Jan 14, 2020
Finish welfare reform by moving able recipients into jobs.
Inslee adopted the manifesto, "A New Agenda for the New Decade":
Help Working Families Lift Themselves from Poverty In the 1990s, Americans resolved to end welfare dependency and forge a new social compact on the basis of work and reciprocal responsibility. The results so far are encouraging: The welfare rolls have been cut by more than half since 1992 without the social calamities predicted by defenders of the old welfare entitlement. People are more likely than ever to leave welfare for work, and even those still on welfare are four times more likely to be working. But the job of welfare reform will not be done until we help all who can
work to find and keep jobs -- including absent fathers who must be held responsible for supporting their children.
In the next decade, progressives should embrace an even more ambitious social goal -- helping every working family lift itself from poverty. Our new social compact must reinforce work, responsibility, and family.
By expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, increasing the supply of affordable child care, reforming tax policies that hurt working families, making sure absent parents live up to their financial obligations, promoting access to home ownership and other wealth-building assets, and refocusing other social policies on the new goal of rewarding work, we can create a new progressive guarantee: No American family with a full-time worker will live in poverty.
Goals for 2010 Finish the job of welfare reform by moving all recipients who can work into jobs.
Cut the poverty rate in half.
Double child support collections and require every father who owes child support to go to work to pay it off.
Source: The Hyde Park Declaration 00-DLC3 on Aug 1, 2000
Increase the earned income tax credit.
Inslee co-sponsored increasing the earned income tax credit
Provisions Relating to Earned Income Credit: Amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal the supplemental young child credit and revise and increase the earned income credit.
Source: Tax Simplification Act (H.R.13) 1993-H13 on Jan 5, 1993
Develop a strategy to eliminate extreme global poverty.
Inslee co-sponsored developing a strategy to eliminate extreme global poverty
A BILL to require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.
Congress makes the following findings:
More than 1 billion people worldwide live on less than $1 per day, and another 1.6 billion people struggle to survive on less than $2 per day.
At the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, the US joined more than 180 other countries in committing to work toward goals to improve life for the world`s poorest people by 2015.
The year 2007 marks the mid-point to the Millennium Development Goals deadline of 2015.
The UN Millennium Development Goals include the goal of reducing by 1/2 the proportion of people that live on less than
$1 per day, & cutting in half the proportion of people suffering from hunger and unable to access safe drinking water and sanitation.
DECLARATION OF POLICY: It is the policy of the United States to promote the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.
REQUIREMENT TO DEVELOP COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY: The US Government shall develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the US foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by 1/2 the proportion of people worldwide who live on less than $1 per day. The strategy shall include specific and measurable goals, efforts to be undertaken, benchmarks, and timetables to achieve the objectives.
Source: Global Poverty Act (S.2433/H.R.1302) 2007-S2433 on Dec 7, 2007