During the most recent national “HoUSed: Universal, Stable, and Affordable Housing” call, we discussed new funding to address homelessness from the American Rescue Plan Act and heard about a new report on prioritizing emergency rental assistance to ensure funds reach the lowest-income and most marginalized households, who are most at risk of housing instability. We shared information on a campaign to ensure COVID-19 stimulus checks reach low-income households and received updates from the field and from Capitol Hill on advancing the HoUSed campaign’s policy priorities.
Richard Cho from HUD provided updates on the department’s allocation of $5 billion in HOME funds from the American Rescue Plan. These funds are designated to provide assistance to people experiencing homelessness, including rental assistance and supportive services, as well as for the development of affordable rental housing and acquisition of non-congregate shelter, like hotels and motels, to be converted into permanent affordable housing or used as emergency shelter.
Rebecca Yae and Emma Foley of NLIHC and Jessi Russell from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) discussed a joint report released by NLIHC and CLASP that provides a framework for emergency rental assistance (ERA) administrators to incorporate equitable policies and practices into the design of ERA programs. NLIHC’s Neetu Nair gave an update on ERA implementation across the country, noting that over 900 state and local ERA programs have been created or expanded in response to COVID-19 and subsequent economic fallout.
Janne Huang from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) shared CBPP’s Get it Back Campaign, created to help low-income people access their stimulus checks and obtain tax credits for which they are eligible. Gregory Heller of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, Alexa Bertinelli from Civil Justice, Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland, and Kody Glazer from the Florida Housing Coalition provided field updates. NLIHC’s Sarah Saadian provided updates from Capitol Hill.
NLIHC hosts national calls every week. On today’s call, we will be joined by Peter Hepburn from Eviction Lab, who will share findings from Eviction Lab’s latest research on evection filing patterns in 2020. Register for today’s call (Monday, May 3 at 2:30 pm ET) at: https://tinyurl.com/ru73qan
Watch a recording of the April 26 call at: tinyurl.com/bnwvxbwm
Access presentation slides at: tinyurl.com/y2dr92tb