NLIHC sent a memo (see: https://bit.ly/3sZYL6F) on November 10 to then President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team outlining the ways the new administration can address one of the most critical issues facing extremely low-income families today: the lack of safe, accessible, and affordable housing.
During his campaign, President Biden declared that “housing should be a right, not a privilege” and pledged to “build back better” through large investments in affordable housing, including making housing vouchers available to all who qualify, and addressing generations of discriminatory housing policies. In the letter, NLIHC identified key opportunities the Biden administration must pursue not only to help people recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, but to address the underlying, structural causes of the nation’s affordable housing crisis.
NLIHC called on President Biden to issue an executive action on his first day in office extending, improving, and enforcing the eviction moratorium to ensure families can safely remain in their homes throughout the duration of the pandemic. (He extended the moratorium until at least March 31, but improvements and enforcement are still needed.) The NLIHC letter also called on the administration to work with Congress to pass another relief package with the resources and protections needed to address the health and housing needs of people experiencing homelessness and America’s lowest-income renters. (The president issued a proposal with many of NLIHC’s top recommendations. See: https://bit.ly/3aQivBD)
Additionally, NLIHC outlined long-term policy solutions to ensure housing affordability, including bridging the gap between incomes and rents; expanding and preserving the supply of affordable housing; preventing housing instability with eviction preventions; addressing climate change and ensuring an equitable disaster housing recovery; and addressing fair housing, and racial and income equity.
The letter urges the new administration to undo the destructive discriminatory policies implemented over the last four years by the prior administration. NLIHC’s letter calls on the Biden administration to reverse the harmful changes made to the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, the 2013 Disparate Impact rule, and the 2016 Equal Access rule and to reverse the former administration’s anti-immigrant proposal to prohibit “mixed status” immigrant families from living in public and other HUD- or USDA-subsidized housing. The Biden administration has taken positive steps on all these fronts.
NLIHC is dedicated to working with the Biden-Harris administration and Congress to enact policies and invest in solutions that ensure the lowest-income people can live in safe, accessible, affordable homes and that advance racial and income equity.
Read NLIHC’s memo to President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team: https://bit.ly/3sZYL6F
Read the NLIHC Memo to Members and Partners article, “President-Elect Biden Announces New COVID-19 Relief Proposal”: https://bit.ly/3aQivBD