The 2020 supplemental to the 2019–21 budget had appropriated $60.0 million from the home security fund account for local temporary shelter capacity grants. Then, the 2021 supplemental reduced that amount to $25.0 million. The enacted 2021–23 budget appropriated $35.0 million from the home security fund account for this purpose.

Of the shelter capacity grant money, a summary of Gov. Inslee’s 2022 budget proposal notes, “At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we diverted a portion of these funds to support the immediate need to shelter people in isolation and quarantine housing, and expand shelter capacity to meet social distancing requirements.”

Gov. Inslee’s 2022 supplemental operating budget proposal would appropriate $100.0 million from the general fund–state (GFS) to the home security fund account, specifically to continue shelter capacity grant funding into ensuing biennia.

The home security fund account was created in 2005 and may be used for homeless housing programs. For 2019–21 and 2021–23, it may also be used for shelter capacity grants. Revenues for the account come from three document recording surcharges: the state’s portion of the $62 surcharge for local homeless housing and assistance, the state’s portion of the $8 additional surcharge for local homeless housing and assistance, and 76% of the $100 surcharge added earlier this year under E2SHB 1277. (Additionally, the 2021–23 budget transferred $9.0 million from GFS to the home security fund account.)

The rest of the E2SHB 1277 surcharge goes to the affordable housing for all account (created in 2007) and the landlord mitigation program account (created in 2018). The affordable housing for all account is funded with 20% of the $100 surcharge under E2SHB 1277 and the state portion of the $13 affordable housing for all document recording surcharge.

The fiscal note for E2SHB 1277 estimated that it would raise $292.0 million a biennium. In 2021–23, $221.9 million was estimated to go to the home security fund account, $58.4 million to the affordable housing for all account, and $11.7 million to the landlord mitigation program account. For 2021–23, the revenues from the E2SHB 1277 surcharge were earmarked for the various housing programs in the bill.

The chart shows appropriations from the three accounts over time. With the $100 recording surcharge in 2021–23, appropriations jumped substantially. (The amounts shown for 2021–23 reflect the enacted budget; under Gov. Inslee’s supplemental, appropriations from the home security fund account would increase by $106,000 and appropriations from the affordable housing for all account would increase by $24,000.)

In November, a lawsuit was filed arguing that the document recording surcharges are unconstitutional.