2023-24 PROGRAM OF WORK
CONTINUATION OF PREVIOUS PROGRAM: AFFORDABLE HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS
On May 9, 2017, the Tacoma City Council passed Ordinance 28430, declaring a state of public health emergency regarding homelessness. On June 10, 2023 - when the 2023 annual meeting was held – Tacoma was in a continuous state of emergency for 2223 days.
Lack of affordable housing and increasing homelessness remain a crisis in Tacoma, Pierce County, the state of Washington, and throughout much of the nation. Since 2017, many bills that were supported by the League passed in legislative sessions and these have helped to address this crisis. But there is still much to be done. LWVTPC proposes to continue to monitor these issues and take action when appropriate based on existing positions during the 2023-24 program year.
Members agreed to continue advocating for sound homelessness and housing policies (including renter’s rights and eviction protection), investments in affordable/social housing, and supportive services during the 2023-24 program year.
During this program year, there have been presentations on this topic at Unit Meetings. See the Unit Meeting page for more information.
In March there was a presentation regarding the Tacoma/Lakewood/Pierce County Continuum of Care (CoC)proposed 5-year plan in anticipation of public comments. See that presentation here. Comments will be accepted until April 5, 2024. Send to Cynthia Stewart, co-Chair, CoC.
CONTINUATION OF PREVIOUS PROGRAM: MEDIA & DEMOCRACY STUDY
LWVTPC originally approved undertaking a study on local journalism in 2019. The study was put on hold in 2020, and a revised study was taken up in 2021 under the title Media and Democracy, led by the study team of Rosemary Powers and Theresa Power-Drutis. This revised project identified the crisis in local news publication as a threat to democracy but revised the scope of the study to: 1) identifying a variety of local news outlets in Pierce county with attention to their breadth and depth of coverage of local issues; and 2) exploring what Pierce County residents think about their access to regular and accurate local news. The team found a wide variety and quality in print and online sources claiming to cover local news, learned about promising local and hyper-local non-profit news ventures, and discovered widely divergent views in county residents’ definitions of local news and reliable sources of local news.
A report on the findings from this study was presented at the LWVTPC unit meetings of May 2023. No consensus process was requested at that time. Rather, the team offered their report as evidence that could help shape our local League’s strategy in support of the new position on local journalism approved by the State Board on April 10, 2023. This follows the approach to support for local news that was proposed at the December 2023 Program Planning meeting. The State League position states in brief: “The League of Women Voters of Washington believes it is the responsibility of the government to provide support for conditions under which credible local journalism can survive and thrive.” Further, and establishing a focused definition for action, “The League of Women Voters of Washington defines local news as accurate, in-depth coverage of government entities, including but not limited to, city councils, county councils, county boards of commissioners, health departments, schools, and school boards” (from website https://lwvwa.org). The remaining specific suggested strategies for promoting this new state League position offer multiple opportunities for our local efforts.
Members agreed that action for 2023-24 would be to promote the State League position.