The House voted 220 - 212 on August 24 to approve a budget resolution, setting the stage for a $3.5 trillion infrastructure and economic recovery package, including up to $339 billion in investments to get and keep low-income people housed.
Now that the House and Senate have approved the budget resolution, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Committee on Financial Services will continue drafting legislation to divide these funds among various housing and transportation programs. With your advocacy, we can ensure that this once-in-a-generation investment includes the #HoUSed campaign’s top priorities: expanding rental assistance with $180 billion phased in over ten years, providing $70 billion to preserve public housing, and investing $45 billion in the national Housing Trust Fund. Together, these resources will help ensure that the nation’s lowest-income and most marginalized households have a safe, accessible, and affordable home.
Background
The HoUSed campaign works to achieve the large-scale, sustained investments and anti-racist reforms necessary to ensure that renters with the lowest incomes have stable, accessible, and affordable homes. An infrastructure and economic recovery package is our first and best opportunity to advance the HoUSed campaign priorities, including expanding rental assistance, repairing public housing, and investing in the national Housing Trust Fund.
The budget resolution was first approved by the Senate on August 13. With the House’s vote on August 24, each committee – including Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and House Financial Services – will begin drafting legislation to dedicate funding to various housing and transportation programs. Congressional Democrats will be required to vote on the bills in committee by a September 27deadline set by the House Rules Committee.
The allocation for affordable housing investments included in the budget resolution could allow for robust housing investments in line with or even above the $318 billion proposed for housing programs by President Biden in his “American Jobs Plan” (which the administration increased from an initial proposal of $213 billion, thanks to the hard work and tenacity of affordable housing and homelessness advocates). President Biden’s $318 billion included $213 billion in direct investments and $105 billion in housing-related tax provisions. Because the jurisdiction of each committee differs slightly, the overall allocation for housing is different in the House ($339 billion) and Senate ($332 billion) versions of the budget resolution.
Take Action
You can help build support for these essential investments:
- Contact your members of Congress and urge them to include the HoUSed campaign’s priorities in the infrastructure and economic recovery package. Educate your members of Congress on why investments in rental assistance, public housing, and the Housing Trust Fund are critical to your community. Learn how to contact your members of Congress at https://www.govtrack.us. NLIHC created a media toolkit you can use that includes talking points, sample op-eds, and social media messages.
- Join more than 1,000 organizations nationwide by signing the HoUSed campaign letter and circulating it among your networks. This letter is one of the most effective ways to show congressional leaders the broad support for the HoUSed campaign’s priorities for the infrastructure/economic recovery bill.
Thank you for your advocacy.