More than 100 affordable housing and homelessness advocates attended NLIHC’s Capitol Hill Day on March 29 to close out NLIHC’s 2019 Policy Forum: Seizing the Moment for Bold Solutions. The advocates visited more than 150 House and Senate offices, armed with NLIHC data on every state and congressional district in the country and copies of NLIHC publications, including the recently released The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes report.
The core messages shared with congressional delegations were the need to include housing investments in any infrastructure package, to expand the national Housing Trust Fund through housing finance reform to at least $3.5 billion annually, to lift the low Budget Control Act spending caps on defense and domestic programs, and to fund HUD and USDA affordable housing programs at the highest levels possible. Advocates also discussed some of the bold housing bills introduced in the new Congress and others forthcoming, such as the “American Housing and Economic Mobility Act,” the “Rent Relief Act,” the “Housing, Opportunity, Mobility, and Equity (HOME) Act,” the “Ending Homelessness Act,” the “Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act,” and others.
Capitol Hill Day advocates shared their experiences of disinvestment in their communities and spoke about the need to increase the supply of affordable rental homes in their respective states and communities. People with lived experiences discussed their concerns with their current living situations and the importance of having the ability to organize for quality, safety, and ongoing affordability in their housing.