Last Wednesday on December 3rd, Futurewise hosted our annual kick off meeting to launch our 2026 legislative campaign: Growing Together! A huge shout out to the 50+ volunteers and partner organizations that attended, and especially to Representative Strom Peterson (D, 21 District) for getting us fired up about tackling homelessness and advocating for a better Washington in next year’s legislative session. Not able to make it? Read on for the full recap!

 

Growing Together
Our state is facing serious problems. More and more Washingtonians are struggling to afford basics like housing and transportation, climate change is making extreme weather like floods more common, and homelessness continues to rise. And without federal support, it can be daunting to imagine how we can tackle these issues.

But the way we plan and use our land shapes nearly every part of our lives, from how our communities physically look, how affordable things are, how easy it is to get around and our environmental impact. That’s why if we can Grow Together, we can not only tackle these issues, but to continue to shape our communities across the state to be places that are equitable, affordable, and ultimately places we are excited to call home.

We’ve made huge progress over the past few years, with a focus on housing. We passed 1220 that made sure we were planning for housing types for all income levels, passed middle housing to make sure we’re allowing different types of homes in all neighborhoods, and most recently passed transit-oriented development to ensure we’re building more housing near transit. These victories were possible only because volunteers across Washington spoke up and pushed for change.

But passing these bills is only the first step. If we truly want to make sure we’re enacting our vision of a better future, we need to stick with it and see how the bills are actually implemented and shaping our communities.

That’s why we are prioritizing these bills in our 2026 campaign:

Tackling homelessness
We’re working to remove barriers to building permanent supportive housing, emergency shelters, and transitional housing. These are often the hardest housing types to site because local jurisdictions add costly and unnecessary requirements beyond other housing types, in part due to stigma or neighborhood opposition. Following up from our success passing HB 1220, we want to ensure we’re able to put roofs over people’s heads and make sure they have the housing support they need by making it easier to site this housing as outlined by state law.

Encouraging middle housing
In 2023 we passed monumental legislation that allowed middle housing. But there are hurdles that make it impossible to build all types of middle housing everywhere, especially stacked flats and condos. That’s why we are working on a suite of issues to legalize stacked flats and make it easier and affordable to build condos. Our advocacy will be done through the state building code council and the legislature. We’re working to make sure building codes are updated to make it feasible to build stacked flats and still have safe homes, and expanding condo liability reform to include larger buildings.

Balancing Rural Housing and the Environment
Addressing the housing affordability crisis in rural areas is always complex. It’s important to balance the need of rural communities and ensure it is affordable to continue to live rural and provide the housing options that folks need, while balancing the importance of protecting farmland and greenspaces from sprawl. It’s complex and there’s no straightforward easy solution. But you can count on Futurewise to have everyone’s interest in mind.

How to Get Involved
It’s going to take all hands on deck to pass this ambitious agenda! We need volunteers in every corner of the state to get involved, email legislators, get friends and family involved, write letters to the editor and more. We also need volunteer leaders to take on responsibilities like hosting happy hours, helping folks across the state write letters, and more. Interested? Fill out this form to learn about volunteering and leadership opportunities and sign up for upcoming events. 

You can always check out our online events calendar and join our discord to see what’s coming up!  Join us in January for policy roundtables with Futurewise experts discussing our priorities in more details. Stay tuned for more info!