This article originally appeared in the Feb. 25, 2021 edition of This Week in Renton.
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COVER STORY
Sunset Gardens, a Renton Housing Authority project, would house homeless and chronically homeless residents, veterans, and others. It would receive $1 million in funding from HB 1590.
Helping our most vulnerable through dedicated funding
Helping those most vulnerable in our community is one of the primary duties of a city’s leadership.
Thanks to decisive action last year by Renton City Council, we now have a new source of dedicated funding to support those in our community who need help finding affordable housing, locating mental health services, and transitioning from homelessness.
The funding source is House Bill 1590, which authorizes a 1/10th of 1 cent sales tax collection. The bill gave counties the first chance to implement the tax, then cities. Given that opportunity, our councilmembers moved unanimously in October 2020 to implement it, effective Jan. 1, 2021. Their action ensured proceeds could directly assist the most vulnerable in our community.
An “Early Action Plan” presented to the council on Monday proposed allocating $1 million to help finance Renton Housing Authority’s Sunset Garden project. This project will house homeless and chronically homeless residents, veterans, and others. Another $300,000 will fund mental health response services. Now, Renton Police Department can hire a mental health professional and “navigators” with expertise in steering individuals into treatment. These treatment programs have been more successful than arrest or incarceration.
There are strict limitations on how to use the money and these are just two of the many ways we have investigated. Our overriding goal is to put the funding where it has the most effect.
There’s much more to come on this plan, but for now, you can view the presentation to the council if you’d like more details.