The Regional Housing Council voted to authorize Chair Emily Klaus to sign a draft King County‑led letter to Gov. Jay Inslee asking for increased Encampment Resolution Program (ERP) funding for Thurston County.

Tom Water briefed the council that Thurston CountyÕs current ERP baseline is about $5.5 million and the coordinated request would raise that total to approximately $6.6 million — an increase of roughly $1.1 million to cover inflationary needs and continued funding for projects including Quint Street and Unity Commons. Tom asked the council to authorize the chair to sign the final letter when it is complete. Carolyn Cox moved to authorize the chair to sign the letter; a second was made and the motion passed.

Council members then turned to the question of whether to include a proposed clarification of the Residential Landlord Tenant Act (RLTA) among their top three 2026 legislative priorities. Members described competing concerns: some providers and jurisdictions want clearer language so emergency housing providers can enforce exits safely without creating eviction records; others warned that clarifying the RLTA in some ways could inadvertently increase evictions and harm residents.

Kim (Lacey staff) described practical consequences she said she has seen: “We are putting evictions on people in order to exit them, and that is one thing that we donÕt want to put on our unhoused population,” she said, adding that tiny‑home village operators and volunteer providers have been caught by the lawÕs application. Meg (advisory board/provider representative) echoed the need for nuance: “How do we ensure that those emergency housing providers without a formal lease for people are not just kicking people out when they want to?” she asked.

Council members agreed there is no consensus on specific RLTA language and asked staff to pursue additional fact‑finding, including possible meetings with state legislative offices and jurisdictional partners, and to return with proposed language and examples at the December meeting.

The ERP authorization and the RLTA next steps are procedural: the letter to the governor is an advocacy step pending final text; the RLTA item remains under consideration pending staff follow‑up.