NLIHC’s Annual Report provides a comprehensive picture of NLIHC’s advocacy activities, campaigns, research and publications, and other achievements in 2024.
As part of the preparations for a presidential election year, NLIHC assessed the political landscape and mobilized campaigns, creating extensive resources to advance solutions to the affordable housing crisis and expand access to housing assistance for low-income communities.
NLIHC collaborated with partners and state and local advocates nationwide to expand and protect resources for affordable housing and homelessness programs funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Working alongside these partners, NLIHC led the development of the “Opposing Cuts to Federal Investments in Affordable Housing” advocacy toolkit. This toolkit provided advocates with essential background information, data, talking points, and sample messaging for social media and op-eds, all aimed at securing the highest possible HUD funding for fiscal year 2025.
Throughout 2024, NLIHC continued to advocate for reforms to key programs that would both expand and preserve the supply of affordable housing and strengthen tenant protections. For example, in collaboration with the National Housing Law Project (NHLP) and the Tenant Union Federation (TUF), NLIHC successfully launched The National Tenants Bill of Rights (TBOR). This bill codifies necessary tenant protections into federal law, representing a significant advancement in shifting power to renters.
Each year, NLIHC aims to produce meaningful and comprehensive publications that are well-researched and valuable across the affordable housing spectrum. The publications for 2024 were no exception. Alongside critical research published in signature reports such as The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes and Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing, NLIHC, in partnership with the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC), launched The National Risk Index and Racial Equity for Renters and the Picture of Preservation reports. NLIHC published a number of additional research reports, briefs, and toolkits spanning across its multiple campaigns and initiatives.
Building on the success of the End Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) project, which concluded in December 2023, NLIHC introduced the new State and Local Innovation (SLI) project. The SLI project supports state and local partners in advancing, implementing, and enforcing tenant protections, sustaining emergency rental assistance (ERA) programs, preventing the criminalization of homelessness and promoting innovations that reduce eviction rates.
NLIHC’s commitment to closing resource and knowledge gaps at the state and local levels continued with the launch of the Our Homes, Our Votes Pilot Communities Initiatives. Through these initiatives, NLIHC aimed to engage low-income renters across the nation in all aspects of the electoral and voter process. Five of NLIHC’s State and Tribal Partners, with strong records of nonpartisan voter engagement, were selected to participate: Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, Housing Network of Rhode Island, Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing, Georgia Advancing Communities Together, and Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania.
Between March 18-21, more than 500 individuals from across the nation participated in the 2024 NLIHC “Housing Policy Forum: An Unwavering Path Forward to Housing Justice.” This event helped commemorate our organization’s 50-year history and engaged thought leaders, policy experts, researchers, tenant advocates, affordable housing practitioners, and members of Congress in discussions on addressing the housing and homelessness crisis in America. During this event, we were proud to host the “Leadership Awards,” honoring key figures who contributed to NLIHC’s advocacy successes: community leader Dora Gallo from A Community of Friends, organizing leader Community Change Resident Organizing Networks (RAP, RUN, ROC), emerging leader Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL), and policy champion Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA).
Read the Annual Report and learn more about the initiatives NLIHC championed in 2024.
