The state Senate has proposed a devastating $39.3 million cut to the Housing Trust Fund.  At least $32 million of this will come from funding that has already been allocated and projects that may already be underway.  The Housing Trust Fund is Washington’s most important means of providing safe, decent, and affordable housing.  Without the Trust Fund, we can’t make progress towards our commitment to end homelessness.  A cut this deep to projects that are already underway will not only put access to affordable housing…

Yesterday, the IRS released a statement indicating that there are more than $1.3 billion in unclaimed federal tax refunds for people who did not file for 2006. This includes approximately 37,000 filers in Washington state! If you are one of those people, you need to file your 2006 return by April 15, 2010, or you lose that refund…

Our sites can help!  Don’t miss out on your money!!

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this post (or any post on this blog, for that matter) represent the opinion of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of United Way of King County staff or volunteers.

My logic tends towards the illogical, as many of you know, so try to stick with me here:

Get your taxes done for FREE!!

Now through April 15, 2010, United Way of King County will operate 17 free tax preparation sites throughout King County.  Tax assistance will be provided by over 550 volunteers who are trained and certified by the IRS.

Who is eligible for this service?

What services are available at tax sites?

Many of you have heard me talk about “permanent supportive housing” in previous posts.  Washington state’s Housing Trust Fund is the essential tool for the creation and preservation of permanent supportive housing. In order to keep up with the community need, an additional $100 million in funding should be added to the Housing Trust Fund. More than 70 percent of people served by the Fund make less than $17,540 per year, making it a vital resource in the fight to end homelessness.

Funding the Housing Trust Fund now with $100 million would allow Washington…

(Photo from the SKCCH website)

Here are the early results of last night’s One Night Count in King County.

Last night, hundreds of volunteers for the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness fanned out throughout the County.  Between 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM, more than 130 teams of volunteers found 2759 people sleeping on the streets, in parks, in their cars, in temporary shelters and in makeshift campsites.

More later…

(Part 1 can be found here)

Updated at 11:10 AM, Friday January 29th:  Here is the article from today’s Seattle Times.

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(Photo from the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness)

In addition to all of the great feedback on the site this week about our Hunger Challenge, here are a few other items that I wanted to let folks know about:

Here’s a nice re-cap of how the Earned Income Tax Credit can actually help break the cycle of poverty for someone, and why it’s so incredibly important to help people who receive the EITC to understand how to use the credit to build personal wealth and assets for the future.

Get your taxes done for FREE!!

Starting on January 12th, 2010, United Way of King County will operate 17 free tax preparation sites throughout King County.  Tax assistance will be provided by over 550 volunteers who are trained…

Ballots for the February 9th special election began arriving in our mailboxes last week.  Don’t let the thin-ness of your voter pamphlet fool you…this is a very important election for Seattle!  Just a reminder, we are 100% mail-in, so get your ballots filled out and returned by the 9th!

For more info, call 206-296-VOTE, or visit King County Elections.

“The perennial question in any democracy is always, how is the public interest informed and influenced by the most vulnerable in our society?“–from Democracy Matters by Dr. Cornel West

I chose this title, and that quote, because so many things recently have struck me as relevantly irrelevant.  Go ahead and blame Bush for the war.  Blame Obama for the economy.  Look for the fattest paycheck you can find.  Just go home tonight, and sit around (and fail to see past) your dining room table.  Forget how lucky or blessed…