The Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign supports more than 20 state campaigns that are focused on building a multi-sector movement to generate widespread support for federal policies that correct long-standing racial inequities and economic injustices by ensuring quality housing for people with low incomes. In pursuit of this aim, OSAH partners in North Carolina and Illinois have undertaken new collaborations with members of their multi-sector coalitions.
OSAH’s partners in North Carolina will host a virtual event addressing the intersections of affordable housing, childcare, and other important issues, as well as the ways advocates can work together to put children and housing first. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many children in North Carolina – particularly children of color and those from low-income households – were members of families struggling to keep roofs over their heads. The advent of the pandemic only exacerbated the problem. The upcoming virtual event will focus on the ways the needs of children need to be centered in discussions about housing affordability. Register for the event here.
Meanwhile, OSAH partner Housing Action Illinois submitted a sign-on letter concerning the fiscal year (FY) 2023 federal budget to Senator Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois on November 22. The letter urged Senator Durbin to support the highest possible funding levels for housing programs and included 20 signatories from outside the affordable housing sector, including AIDS Foundation Chicago, Children’s Advocates for Change, Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, and the Disability Resource Center. Read the letter here.
Learn more about those state campaigns supported by OSAH here.