NLIHC has released a comprehensive advocacy toolkit designed to guide homelessness and housing advocates and direct service providers in advocacy efforts during the August congressional recess. The toolkit offers information about how to host site visits and in-district meetings with members of Congress and provides ideas about ways to advocate for evidence-based homelessness solutions like Housing First.
Now that pandemic-related resources are dwindling, renters face a range of issues that threaten their housing security, such as sharply rising rents, increased evictions, and worsening homelessness. NLIHC encourages members and advocates in our network to utilize the August recess, during which members of Congress often return to their districts, to meet with their policymakers and demand that they take action on the local, state, and federal levels to address the growing homelessness and housing poverty crisis.
The August Recess Advocacy Toolkit includes key resources advocates can use when trying to build congressional support for solutions to the housing and homelessness crisis. These include an extensive list of talking points about the Housing First model, effective storytelling tips and tricks, social media suggestions, detailed guides on how to host site visits and schedule and conduct in-district meetings with legislators, and NLIHC resources that contain factsheets and research on the Housing First model. The toolkit also outlines the goals and priorities of NLIHC’s HoUSed campaign, which aims to advance anti-racist housing policies and achieve large-scale and sustained investments to ensure renters with the lowest incomes have affordable places to call home.
Download the toolkit here.