A state task force evaluating the need for a cabinet-level housing department recently heard from more stakeholders.
While the Housing Department Task Force is looking at the possibility of a top-level state department to manage housing, its meetings also provide an opportunity to hear from other state agencies that deal with housing about gaps and barriers.
Recently, the group heard from the Racial Equity Commission, the State Council for Persons with Disabilities, and the state Department of Services for Children and their Families. That office’s head, Steve Yeatman, said while his department doesn’t directly administer housing programs, they work with many families who need housing assistance.
“19% of homeless households in this state are households that have a child included in them - at least one child," he told task force members. "27% of the total homeless population in the state are children under the age of 18.”
Yeatman says his agency hears a lot about housing from its clients, including frustration about the process and having to take time off work to deal with finding housing. Many families in need are underemployed and in jobs without paid time off.
“Clients have also reported that they feel the housing options available to them are sometimes substandard - their language, not ours - and also located in neighborhoods that they feel are unsafe," he said.
Many groups point out the state’s housing assistance is fragmented and siloed.
“The way that I've described it is, nodes of people doing really good work, but not a good system," said State Housing Authority Director Matthew Heckles.
The task force is slated to issue a report next spring.
