NLIHC will honor the Congressional Progressive Caucus at our 40th Annual Housing Leadership Awards Celebration, which will be held virtually on Thursday, April 28. The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) will receive the 2022 Edward W. Brooke Housing Leadership Award, named after the late senator from Massachusetts and former NLIHC board chair who was a strong leader for affordable housing throughout his career. The CPC will be presented the award for its exceptional commitment to advancing historic affordable housing investments to address homelessness and housing poverty in the U.S. The other honorees will be Ann O’Hara and Representative Ritchie Torres. Donate to NLIHC as an individual or as an organization in recognition of these exceptional leaders, and register to attend the event (which is free to the public).
Founded in 1991 and currently chaired by Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the Congressional Progressive Caucus advocates for progressive policies that fight inequity, advance racial and social justice, and prioritize the needs of people with low incomes. The Caucus is the leading voice on Capitol Hill calling for bold policies to address the urgent crises facing the U.S., including the national shortage of affordable, accessible housing for the lowest-income people.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus led efforts to support the national eviction moratorium and to get $46 billion allocated for emergency rental assistance to ensure the housing stability of millions of at-risk low-income renters during the pandemic. When a framework for the “Build Back Better Act” began taking shape in April 2021, the Congressional Progressive Caucus made historic investments in affordable, accessible housing one of its key priorities for the package, including a major expansion of housing vouchers, funding to address the capital repair backlog in public housing, and billions of dollars to construct, preserve, and operate affordable, accessible housing for those most in need through the national Housing Trust Fund.
Throughout the 2021 negotiations, the Caucus worked tirelessly to advance these priorities in the final Build Back Better package and ended up securing an historic $150 billion in federal investments in housing in the House-passed bill. The bill included $65 billion for public housing repairs to benefit its 2.5 million residents, $25 billion to expand housing vouchers to an additional 300,000 households, and $15 billion to build and preserve 150,000 affordable homes for those most in need. It is thanks in large part to the Caucus’s vision for what the Build Back Better Act could be – and what it could deliver to the American people – that the bill with these historic housing investments was passed in the House in 2021.
In addition to giving this recognition to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, NLIHC will present the Dolbeare Lifetime Service Award, named for NLIHC’s founder Cushing Niles Dolbeare, to Ann O’Hara for her decades of advocacy for quality, accessible, affordable homes for extremely low-income households as a public housing authority director, Section 8 administrator, state housing official, founder and associate director of the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC), and NLIHC board member. Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) will receive the Sheila Crowley Housing Justice Award for his outstanding leadership in elevating the need for historic affordable housing investments for people with the lowest incomes in 2021. This award is named after former NLIHC President and CEO Sheila Crowley, who led NLIHC for more than 17 years.
Recognize these outstanding leaders by donating to NLIHC in their honor!
Donate and register to attend the event at: https://bit.ly/LEADERS22
(Attendance is free to the public.)
Or text LEADERSHIP to 41444 to donate in honor of the awardees.
Your donation will be recognized in the Leadership Awards Celebration program, and your contribution will support NLIHC’s mission to achieve racially and socially equitable public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes have quality homes that are accessible and affordable in communities of their choice. Registration to attend the Housing Leadership Awards Celebration will be forthcoming.
Donate and register to attend the free event at: https://bit.ly/LEADERS22