Every other year, our advocacy partners at Statewide Poverty Action Network fan out across Washington to ask people working to escape poverty what they need most from state lawmakers. And what they hear, time after time, is that too many of the systems that are supposed to help our most vulnerable neighbors are actually stacked against them.

So based on what they heard in their Listening Sessions last fall, Poverty Action is turning its advocacy work this spring toward a series of policy changes within three issue areas:  

Meeting Basic Needs

Whether our labor is unpaid or underpaid, we work hard to meet our needs and pursue our goals. We each contribute in unique ways to our loved ones and our community. We all deserve to get the help we need, no matter what. Because when we have a solid foundation to meet our needs, we can take opportunities to build the life we want.    

What We Can Do About It 

• Fund a statewide Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) program and bolster support for existing GBI pilots across the state.  
• Improve Medicaid coverage for dentures, partials, braces, and other essential procedures – and use Medicaid as an incentive for mobile dental clinics providing care to rural communities. 

Learn more on the Poverty Action blog: Issue #1: Meeting Basic Needs. 

Transforming Cash Assistance Programs

Since Poverty Action was founded in 1996, our bread-and-butter issue has been strengthening the range of cash assistance programs available to Washingtonians. These state and federal programs are a critical lifeline for the families who rely on them to survive, but what we hear from communities across the state is that these programs do not currently provide a pathway out of poverty.  

Because of the complicated and burdensome nature of these programs, families are often unable to determine which options are available to them or navigate their convoluted application processes and program requirements. Once they’ve jumped through all these hoops, the amount they receive makes it nearly impossible to meet their basic needs, never mind build up savings.   

We envision a system built on support, not suspicion, where low-income Washingtonians have a seat at the table to ask for and receive the help they need. Cash assistance programs should be a pathway out of poverty for Washingtonians living on low incomes, not systems that harm the people they exist to help.   

What We Can Do About It

• Reinstate the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Hardship Time Limit Extensions to increase equity and ensure that all families needing help can receive it.   
• Reinstate the full Child Support Passthrough to ensure that child support payments to families on TANF go to children, not the state.   
• Increase transparency of investigations conducted by the Office of Fraud and Accountability by asking the Department to regularly present data to the legislature, including the racial demographics of people investigated.  
• Expand access to the Working Families Tax Credit to all adults over the age of 18. 

Learn more on the Poverty Action blog: Issue #2: Transforming Cash Assistance Programs. 

Bolstering Consumer Protections

In addition to building a social safety net that helps Washingtonians living on low incomes meet their basic needs, we’re working to help families keep money in their pockets by bolstering consumer protections. Predatory lending and debt are persistent threats to the material well-being of millions of Washingtonians. The economic hardship of the last four years has worsened these threats, forcing many to use credit to meet short term-obligations like rent, groceries, and utility payments. People shouldn’t have to go into debt to put food on the table.   

What We Can Do About It 

• Cap payday loan interest rates, as several other states do, at 36%.  
• Ensure unclaimed gift cards are transferred to the state as unclaimed property, then to the state as revenue, instead of padding corporate profits.  
• Allow consumers to cash out gift cards under $50, combine gift cards with other forms of payment to maximize their use, and prevent companies from setting minimum reloading amounts to gift cards.  
• Restrict abusive contract terms and lending practices by bringing HESA (Home Equity Sharing Agreements) contracts under the definition of a mortgage loan. This would ensure the same protections as traditional mortgages and thus regulation by the Department of Financial Institutions. 

Learn more on the Poverty Action blog: Issue #3: Bolstering Consumer Protections.