NLIHC’s Our Homes, Our Votes Nonpartisan Campaign Launches Best Practices Report

By Tia Turner, NLIHC Our Homes, Our Votes Project Manager 

In celebration of National Voter Education Week, NLIHC released its first-ever best practices report, Turning Renters to Voters: Lessons in Engaging Low-Income Communities. The new report documents the groundbreaking work of our pilot communities, who spent the last election cycle proving that housing organizations are uniquely positioned to strengthen our democracy by empowering the renters they serve. 

Renters are severely underrepresented in our political process, with just 52% of eligible renters voting in 2024 compared to 70% of homeowners. This disparity results in a housing policy that is skewed toward homeowners and fails to meet the needs of low-income renters. NLIHC’s nonpartisan Our Homes, Our Votes campaign exists to close this gap by equipping housing advocates with the tools and resources to empower renters in their communities. 

In 2024, Our Homes, Our Votes launched the Pilot Communities initiative to put this mission into action. Six state and Tribal partners received grants and technical assistance to design outreach strategies that reflect their local context and needs and help renters make their voices heard at the ballot box. Together, they made more than 5,650 voter contacts, and renters reached through their efforts were at least 11% more likely to cast a ballot than those not contacted.  

Turning Renters to Voters captures the experiences of each pilot community, highlighting successful activities and assessing best practices in nonpartisan voter engagement: 

Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness centered its strategy on in-person outreach that began with listening and empathy. Staff prioritized meeting residents’ immediate needs before initiating conversations about voting to establish trust and make engagement work. As a small organization, they amplified their impact through “train-the-trainer” sessions, which prepared more than 600 service providers and community organizers to support nonpartisan outreach and provided grants to partners to give rides to the polls. 

Housing Network of Rhode Island focused on connecting voting to affordable housing as a tangible, nonpartisan issue that resonated with residents' daily lives. Staff and volunteers canvassed and called more than 1,800 residents in subsidized housing communities to encourage them to make a plan to vote. Among residents who spoke with canvassers, turnout was 17 percentage points higher than among those not reached. 

Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing and its Resident United Network of Los Angeles proved that civic education can be joyful and social. Their resident-led “Bingo, Burritos, and the Ballot” events combined food, voter education, and peer leadership to help residents understand how specific local ballot initiatives could impact their lives and encourage participation among first-time voters. This approach showed that when voter education happens in welcoming and familiar social spaces, it makes voting feel approachable and helps new voters take the first step toward lifelong participation. 

Georgia Advancing Communities Together focused on creating accessible, visible, and trusted spaces for low-income renters and communities of color across the state. Their human-centered approach focused on encouragement and avoided shaming or pressuring anyone who had not previously voted. By partnering with property managers to host events in high-traffic common areas, they built trusted civic spaces where residents felt comfortable registering and asking questions.  

Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania made voter engagement simple and sustainable by integrating it into the daily operations of housing providers across its network. They also provided support to several public housing agencies across the state that carried out nonpartisan voter engagement during the election cycle, including sharing educational materials and expanding registration access. The Alliance developed plug-and-play communications toolkits, distributed Our Homes, Our Votes merchandise, and encouraged partners to include TurboVote links in lease renewals, which created interaction opportunities for residents to register or update their information. 

In 2025, NLIHC expanded the Pilot Communities Initiative to include Prosperity Indiana, bringing fresh perspectives and geographic diversity to the program. Having supported get-out-the-vote phone banking in 2024, they are now expanding their efforts as a full pilot community grantee, focusing on reaching renters in a state with unique political and demographic contexts. 

The pilot communities have demonstrated that housing organizations, tenant leaders, and service providers can play a pivotal role in strengthening our democracy. Their work shows that when renters are equipped with the resources and encouragement to participate in elections, they turn out in greater numbers and make their voices heard. Turning Renters to Voters captures these lessons in detail and offers actionable strategies that can be woven into the mission of every organization serving low-income renters to empower them to make their voices heard in the democratic process.  

Access the full report and additional resources on best practices for engaging low-income communities in the electoral process here.