On NLIHC’s most recent (October 24) national call for the “HoUSed: Universal, Stable, Affordable Housing” campaign, NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel welcomed members back after a brief hiatus, during which NLIHC and our partners at the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) launched the Housing First webinar series.
During the HoUSed campaign call, we were joined by PolicyLink’s Rasheedah Phillips and Jasmine Rangel, who discussed PolicyLink’s Housing Anti-Displacement Toolkit. The toolkit provides advocates with guidance to expand housing opportunities and prevent the displacement of low-income communities of color, utilizing three overarching strategies: increase affordability through inclusionary zoning and community power; ensure investments foster healthy, economically integrated neighborhoods and community ownership; and protect the security of tenants through legal representation, just cause protections, and other vital tenant protections.
Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba and Allison Bovell-Ammon from Children’s HealthWatch shared findings from their new report, Eviction and Household Health and Hardships in Families with Very Young Children. Researchers found that both formal and informal evictions place families at risk of poor health and increased hardship, while making families five times more likely to experience homelessness and up to four times more likely to experience other forms of housing instability. Children were also found to have poorer health outcomes, and mothers were more likely to report depressive symptoms than children and mothers in stable housing.
NLIHC’s Sarah Gallagher provided an overview of the ERASE project’s national convening, “Emergency Rental Assistance: The Path to a Permanent Program,” held in Washington, D.C., on October 17, which was attended by more than 1,200 people in person and virtually. The convening focused on the implementation of emergency rental assistance (ERA) programs, what it would take to create a permanent program, and what states and localities are doing on the ground to make this happen. NLIHC’s Sophie Siebach-Glover also shared ERA spending and reallocation data from the most recent U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) report, which showed that $31.8 billion in ERA funds have been spent so far on assistance, administrative expenses, and housing stability services, and that 6.39 million payments have been made to households.
Maine Affordable Housing Coalition’s Laura Mitchell discussed “HOMEforME,” a new campaign to address the affordable housing crisis in Maine by gathering ideas about best practices for policy priorities from stakeholders, partner organizations, and other states. United Native American Housing Association’s (UNAHA) David Heisterkamp then outlined UNAHA’s priorities for ERA legislative policy. Tribes were not allocated ERA2 funds, so UNAHA is seeking a one-year extension through legislative approval to protect tenants and preserve housing stability.
NLIHC’s Sarah Saadian provided updates on two major opportunities to advance housing policy in the coming months: the fiscal year (FY) 2023 spending package and the end-of-year tax extenders package, two priority pieces of legislation that Congress hopes to enact before the new year begins and a new Congress arrives in Washington. Congress is still negotiating a final FY23 spending bill, and key decisions are being made now about how much funding will be allocated to support housing and homelessness programs across the country. Sarah encouraged advocates and organizations to weigh in with their member of Congress on a variety of legislative priorities, including funding for housing vouchers, public housing, homelessness assistance grants, legal assistance for tenants, and competitive tribal grants. Additionally, NLIHC is advocating not only for the expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) but also to reform the program to better serve households with the greatest needs in the year-end tax extenders package.
National HoUSed campaign calls occur every other week. Our next call will be on November 7 from 2:30 to 4:00 pm ET. Register for the call at: https://bit.ly/3ub2sWM
Watch a recording of the October 24 call at: tinyurl.com/2p8978y6
View presentation slides from the October 24 call at: tinyurl.com/25u5ath7