“How Our Homes Make Us Sick, Promoting Healthy Homes” at NLIHC Housing Policy Forum 2020

"How Our Homes Make Us Sick, and What Advocates Can Do to Promote Healthy Homes” will be a featured session at NLIHC’s Housing Policy Forum 2020: Ending Homelessness and Housing Poverty taking place in Washington, DC, March 25-27, 2020.  Register today for the 2020 Policy Forum featuring sessions and workshops on this and many other topics at: https://bit.ly/2ofWibO

The homes we live in have an enormous impact on our health and well-being. This session will focus on how some of our nation’s most significant place-based health risks – including lead and carbon monoxide poisoning, radon exposure, and increased asthma risks – can be alleviated through policy advocacy at the state and federal level.  Confirmed and invited speakers for this workshop include:

Greg Payne

Greg Payne, director, Maine Affordable Housing Coalition

Emily Benfer

Emily Benfer, visiting associate clinical professor of law, Columbia Law School

Dr. Ana Caskin

Dr. Ana Caskin, MD, pediatrician, Georgetown Medical Center

The Policy Forum will address a wide array of other topics, including the current state of affordable housing in America – the opportunities and threats; mobilizing against attacks to housing opportunities; creating and sustaining multi-sector housing coalitions, racial equity in housing; the administration’s actions on homelessness; the bold policy proposals being advanced by 2020 presidential candidates and congressional leaders and how to move them forward; the YIMBY movement; Capitol Hill insights; affordable housing messaging and narrative change; research on ending homelessness; NLIHC’s Our Homes, Our Votes nonpartisan voter and candidate engagement project; the latest affordable housing research; resident-led movements; state and local affordable housing solutions; redesigning disaster housing recovery; rural and native housing; state and local organizing best practices; advancing ambitious housing bills; and more.

When: The Forum will begin for most participants (see note about special Resident sessions below) on Wednesday, March 25 at 1:00 pm, with a welcoming reception later that evening and a full day of sessions on Thursday, March 26. Capitol Hill Day will take place on Friday, March 27, and will kick off with a preparatory session and a light breakfast at a location near Capitol (for those planning to make congressional visits).

Additional Sessions for Low-Income Residents:  The 2020 Housing Policy Forum will offer a special extended session for low-income residents, doubling from previous years the time for workshops geared specifically to residents – providing more time for resident-specific learning and an opportunity to interact with NLIHC state partners. NLIHC will offer additional resident sessions starting on Tuesday, March 24, at 2:00 p.m., including a dinner with state partners that evening. The special resident sessions will continue on Wednesday, March 25 at 8:30 a.m. prior to the full Forum start at 1:00 p.m.

Resident Member Scholarships – Application Deadline is January 15: A limited number of shared-lodging hotel scholarships will be awarded on a first-come-first-served basis to low-income residents who are NLIHC members and who pay their own Forum registration fee. Scholarships will be awarded to ensure a broad geographic distribution. Apply for a scholarship online at https://bit.ly/2pJKij6 or fill out and send a fillable PDF at: https://bit.ly/2qGmRrj by January 15!

Housing Leadership Awards 2020:  The 2020 NLIHC Housing Leadership Awards Presentations and Reception will take place on Thursday, March 26, 2020 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., also at the Washington Court Hotel. A separate registration fee is required to attend the Leadership Awards event. (See related article in this Memo to Members and Partners.)

Hotel Reservations:  NLIHC has a room block at discounted rates at the Washington Court Hotel where the Forum will take place. Reserve a room at https://bit.ly/32GOAXb or call 800-321-3010 or 202-628-2100 and ask for the NLIHC rate. Rooms are limited, so register early. The cutoff is March 6, 2020.

Register for the 2020 NLIHC Housing Policy Forum today!