The NLIHC 2018 Housing Policy Forum: Building the Movement, March 19-21 in Washington DC, will feature the official launch of a new national multi-sector affordable housing campaign. Learn more about this exciting new campaign and how to get involved at this year’s Forum. The deadline to receive the early-bird registration rate for the Forum is February 19, and space at the Forum is quickly filling up, so register today!
After a year-long planning process and with the input from education, health, anti-poverty, faith-based, civil rights, child-welfare, and other organizations, NLIHC, the National Alliance to End Homelessness (the Alliance), the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), Make Room, and Children’s HealthWatch (CHW) initiated a dynamic, long-term, multi-sector campaign to meet the housing needs of the lowest income people in America. The campaign will mobilize powerful new constituencies beyond housing that are increasingly recognizing the impact that the inability to afford decent housing has on the wellbeing of the people they serve.
The campaign steering committee includes leaders from Children’s Defense Fund, Community Catalyst, the Food Research & Action Center, NAACP, National Alliance on Mental Illness, the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Education Association, and Unidos US. Representatives from these organizations will join leaders from NLIHC, the Alliance, CBPP, Make Room and CHW for the launch.
The Forum will provide a wide array of other opportunities for those committed to building the affordable housing movement to engage with advocates and practitioners, movement leaders, policy experts, researchers, government officials, and low income residents on the challenges and opportunities ahead and on strategies for achieving real solutions. The Forum will offer sessions and workshops on the threats and opportunities for affordable housing in 2018 and beyond; the state of fair housing on the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act; the current political and legislative environment in the run-up to the 2018 elections; the keys to state, local, and resident-led organizing; making housing an issue with the media; and effective story-telling for affordable housing. The Forum will also explore mobilizing nonpartisan voter and candidate engagement; using dynamic research to change the story and influence policy solutions; ensuring housing protections for LGBTQ individuals; housing the formerly incarcerated; and others. There will also be opportunities to engage with leaders and staff in Congress on affordable housing challenges, solutions and priorities, and there will be a special session for low income residents on the morning of March 19.
Confirmed and invited speakers and panelists at the Forum include:
- U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) (Invited)
- Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of The Cook Political Report
- Mark Horvath, founder, Invisible People
- Kriston Capps, staff writer, CityLab
- Laura Kusisto, reporter, Wall Street Journal
- Danica Roem, state delegate (D-VA) (Invited)
- Richard Rothstein, author of the The Color of Law
- James A.A. Cadogan, director, NAACP Legal Defense Fund Thurgood Marshall Institute
- Don Chen, director of equitable development, Ford Foundation
- Sheila Crowley, former NLIHC president and CEO
- Megan Sandel, MD MPH, principal investigator, Children’s Health Watch
- Joseph Lawler, economics reporter, Washington Examiner
- Gregory Lewis, CEO, True Colors Fund