From May 1 through May 8, thousands of advocates in dozens of cities and towns across the country raised their voices in support of increased investments in affordable homes for those with the greatest needs during the Our Homes, Our Voices National Housing Week of Action. This year’s Week of Action featured over 125 events and activities, more than doubling the actions taken in 2017. There is no doubt that we are, together, building a movement.
Throughout the week of action, resident leaders and other advocates for affordable homes attended legislative meetings, and participated in teach-ins, rallies, letter-writing campaigns, housing builds, candidate forums, call-in days, tweetstorms, trainings, and socials. Check out the inspiring pictures of the week’s events at: https://bit.ly/2wKjX7s
Check out pictures and summaries of the week’s events at: https://bit.ly/2jIIsZt
During the week, members of Congress and other elected officials heard from thousands of constituents by mail, phone calls, and emails and at events and meetings around the country. Advocates educated their lawmakers about the ways affordable housing has positively impacted their lives, and why more investments in affordable homes are needed. Legislators attending Our Homes, Our Voices events saw the direct benefits of affordable housing and spoke to their constituents about their commitment to addressing homelessness and housing poverty in America. More than 30 bipartisan members of Congress tweeted their support for the campaign. The Our Homes, Our Voices week of action was so powerful, it was just added to the National Building Museum’s Evicted exhibit!
Our Homes, Our Voices in the Evicted Exhibit at the National Building Museum
On behalf of everyone at NLIHC, thanks to all of the Our Homes, Our Voices participants for your tremendous dedication, energy and action. We invite you to turn your efforts now to Our Homes, Our Votes, a non-partisan campaign to register, educate, and mobilize more low income renters and affordable housing advocates to be involved in voting. Renters, especially low income renters, are underrepresented among voters. To ensure low income housing interests are represented, it is critical that organizations engage these renters and other low income people in the voting process.
We also invite you to continue your advocacy efforts by joining NLIHC and by pledging to continue working to ensure those with the greatest needs have access to safe, accessible homes they can afford.
Please keep posting pictures from your events on the Our Homes, Our Voices Facebook page and continue to tag tweets about the need for greater investments in affordable homes with #OurHomesOurVoices.
Thank you for participating in this successful week of action! You are an inspiration.
Onward,
Diane