National Low Income Housing Coalition Launches New HoUSed Campaign
A campaign for long-term affordable housing solutions
WASHINGTON, DC– The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) has launched a new campaign, “HoUSed: Universal. Stable. Affordable.,” for long-term solutions to ensure affordable, stable housing is universally available to those most in need in America. Joined by congressional champions and national, state, and local partners, the HoUSed campaign will advance anti-racist policies and work to achieve the large-scale, sustained investments and reforms necessary to ensure renters with the lowest incomes have an affordable and accessible place to call home.
The HoUSed campaign advocates for four solutions to America’s housing crisis: expanding rental assistance to every eligible household; increasing the supply of affordable housing for people with the lowest incomes; providing emergency housing assistance to help stabilize families in a crisis; and strengthening and enforcing robust renter protections.
“Our first and best opportunity to advance some of these bold housing solutions is in the ‘American Recovery Plan,’ a soon-to-be-released infrastructure and recovery proposal from President Biden to combat the climate crisis, advance racial equity, and ‘build back better’,” said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel. “To achieve these ambitious goals, Congress must address the urgent housing needs facing extremely low-income households, disproportionately Black, Indigenous and people of color, by including in any recovery package the HoUSed campaign’s infrastructure priorities. This infrastructure and recovery legislation is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in proven affordable housing solutions, including rental assistance, public housing, and the national Housing Trust Fund.”
The HoUSed campaign launch includes a sign-on letter to Congress to support its housing priorities for the infrastructure and recovery bill. The priorities include an expansion of rental assistance to every income-eligible household, $70 billion to repair public housing for current and future generations, and at least $40 billion annually for the National Housing Trust Fund to build and preserve homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes.
America is in the grips of an affordable housing crisis, most severely impacting the most marginalized and lowest-income people. Nationwide, there is a shortage of nearly 7 million affordable and available homes for the lowest income renters. There are no counties in the U.S. where a minimum-wage earner working full-time can afford a two-bedroom apartment. There are proven solutions that can address the affordability crisis, but current funding levels from Congress leave three out of four eligible households receiving no assistance at all.
Through sustained advocacy with congressional champions and national, state, and local partners, the HoUSed campaign will advance the policies needed to ensure housing is universal, stable, and affordable.
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About the National Low Income Housing Coalition
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes. NLIHC educates, organizes, and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing for everyone. For more information about NLIHC, please visit www.nlihc.org.
For more information about the HoUSed campaign, please visit www.nlihc.org/housed.