Opportunity Starts at Home Campaign Calls on Congress to Prioritize Housing Affordability

The Opportunity Starts at Home's multi-sector affordable homes campaign Steering Committee sent a letter on April 9 to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy urging them to prioritize housing affordability in the 116th Congress.  The letter calls on the leaders to elevate rental housing affordability as a national priority given decades of chronic underfunding and the results of a recent poll showing the public overwhelmingly supports concrete federal policy solutions.

The campaign's Steering Committee sent a second letter on the same day to House and Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations leadership urging an additional $5 billion investment in rental assistance. Such an investment would lift more than 100,000 households out of poverty. Specifically, the letter urges Congress to provide an additional $4 billion over the next two years to fund 340,000 new Housing Choice Vouchers and an additional $1 billion over this period to increase funding for the Public Housing Capital Fund and Choice Neighborhoods Initiative.

Read the letter to Senate and House leadership at: https://bit.ly/2Iu7pFV

Read the letter to THUD appropriations leadership at: https://bit.ly/2UK8j7H