By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
Since first being elected in 2020, Washington State Rep. Jamila Taylor of the 30th Legislative District has charted a legislative agenda focused on addressing systemic inequities and investing in community well-being. An attorney and activist, Taylor has concentrated her efforts on pandemic recovery, economic development, behavioral health access, and equitable public safety. As the upcoming legislative session approaches, Taylor has organized her priorities into “four buckets”: homeownership, developmental disability policies, the public safety continuum, and community reinvestment funding.
The first area of focus is homeownership, where Taylor aims to help families overcome financial barriers and expand opportunities for first-time buyers, as she looks to strengthen/refine The Covenant Homeownership Act- which she sponsored and passed last year.
“The Covenant Homeownership Act is fully implemented right now, and this is the bill that provides down payment assistance to those who are subjected to racially discriminatory covenants in housing properties,” Taylor said. “We discovered that the AMI to qualify for the program is really low and requires us to stack a whole lot of programs to get someone into homeownership. I want to preserve those resources for those who need it in that particular way, but also expand the AMI percentage to allow us to serve more folks who have been subjected to racially discriminatory covenants.”
As part of her ongoing vision to help those struggling with home ownership, Taylor emphasized her commitment to making home ownership more accessible, particularly for first-time buyers, and highlighted her plans to implement loan forgiveness and expanding housing options for communities.
“We also want to be reparative justice by providing loan forgiveness, so, after five years of owning a home, your loan would be forgiven,” she explained. “Also in the space of homeownership, I am working on condo liability reform, which would help builders take the risk to build more properties that would help families get into homes, individuals like myself who may not have a large family but would want to downsize to a home that is a condo. It will just give more options for the community and help all of Washington by making sure we support all types of homeownership opportunities for families looking to get out of the rental market cycle.”
Taylor’s second priority is developmental disability policies, an area she has championed as the leader of the Developmental Disability Advocacy Caucus, where she prioritizes housing, workforce, special education, and access to services and civil rights.
“You think about developmental disability advocacy, most people think about special education, but we have to think about the whole life of a person—from the womb all the way to the tomb,” she said. “They become adults, and they need services or accommodations to be fully integrated into the community to the best of their abilities and to what we can do to support them to thrive in our communities.”
Taylor noted that the workforce shortage is a significant challenge in meeting the needs of people with developmental disabilities.
“Not everyone wants every service, and most importantly, not every service that the person is qualified for is available because the workforce is under strain. Many industries are feeling the pains of a workforce shortage, so advocacy for that space is major,” Taylor said.
Her third priority, public safety, involves advocating for comprehensive support for crime victims and domestic violence (DV) survivors, with a focus on preserving and expanding funding. Taylor says that over the years the government has reduced funding for services for victims and hopes to reverse that trend moving forward.
“We are trying to preserve services at the level they are at right now, and we are requesting $75 million to support victim services,” Taylor said. “Victim services can help someone escape the cycle of abuse, making sure that they are participating in cases. In terms of accountability on the person who has committed such crimes, the person who is needing to leave all kinds of services needs a comprehensive set of services.”
Taylor emphasized the need for a holistic approach to victim services, including mental health and behavioral health supports.
“There are folks who are simply trying to heal and need access to behavioral health supports, mental health supports, and might be experiencing a significant amount of challenge in terms of co-parenting,” she said. “So, there are all kinds of services for a person who’s essentially locked in a world of being a DV survivor, and how do we get them free from the abuse? Just recognizing that in crime victim services, there is no perfect survivor. It is comprehensive, and I think we have to look at it from a race equity and culturally responsive lens, which is essential because how folks are suffering is different for every single person.”
Taylor’s fourth priority centers on community reinvestment funding, which aims to address the harm caused by the war on drugs and provide critical resources to Black and brown communities.
“Areas around economic development, legal assistance for reentry folks, ensuring that there is housing available for folks as a way of violence prevention so that we can break the cycle of individuals being in the criminal legal system,” Taylor said. “How do we support communities who want to support themselves? So, I think as an essential method of ensuring that the public safety continuum is truly supported, it can’t just be about law enforcement and about the courts. It really needs to be about prevention, intervention, and how to drive it by what our communities see as their priorities, and that is where I got those four bucket areas from.”
Taylor also highlighted her role as chair of the Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee, where she handles legislation on civil rights and firearm responsibility.
“I’m serving as the chair of Civil Rights and Judiciary. So, there are bills that have come through us relating to civil rights very directly, and that can include gun rights and gun responsibility,” Taylor said. “So, we’re going to take a careful look at how we’re going to protect Washingtonians from firearm violence, and then look at all kinds of areas in the civil legal system.”
As Taylor prepares for the next legislative session, she remains focused on ensuring that her policies address systemic inequities and provide tangible solutions for her constituents.
“It really needs to be about prevention, intervention, and how to drive it by what our communities see as their priorities,” Taylor said.