In the most recent (April 10) National HoUSed Campaign Call, we received updates about developments on Capitol Hill, learned about new research on the successes and challenges of the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program, heard about recent disaster recovery efforts, and reviewed data from NLIHC’s recently published annual report, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Rental Homes.
NLIHC Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Field Organizing Sarah Saadian shared the latest updates from Capitol Hill and discussed how advocates can engage with their members of Congress about the need for increasing resources for affordable housing and homelessness programs in fiscal year (FY) 2024. House Republicans, under the leadership of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), are calling on their colleagues in Congress to enact steep cuts to the federal budget in fiscal year (FY) 2024, including potentially capping FY24 spending at FY22 levels. Advocates should email their members of Congress today and demand they provide increased funding in FY24 for these vital programs. Advocates are encouraged to explore NLIHC’s advocacy toolkit for ideas about how to oppose budget cuts to essential federal investments in affordable housing.
Christi Economy from the Terner Center for Housing Innovation joined the call to discuss findings from a new report, “Using Emergency Housing Vouchers to Address Homelessness,” which evaluates the successes and challenges of HUD’s Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program. The report finds that while EHVs expanded resources to address homelessness, the scale of the additional capacity varied by state, depending on the number of people experiencing homelessness in the state. Some EHV recipients have also struggled to find quality, affordable housing that accepts their voucher, so that roughly 33% of people awarded an EHV are still searching for housing. The report also provides recommendations for increasing voucher utilization, based on programs’ experiences with EHV distribution and leasing.
NLIHC Senior Policy Analyst for Disaster Recovery Noah Patton shared disaster recovery updates from areas that have been recently impacted by deadly tornadoes across the country, including Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Tennessee, and Illinois. Noah elaborated on FEMA’s disaster response process and shared what advocates and directly impacted disaster survivors might expect in the coming months as communities begin to recover from these devastating disasters.
NLIHC Senior Vice President for Research Andrew Aurand shared findings from the newest edition of NLIHC’s annual report, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Rental Homes. The report finds that the shortage of deeply affordable, available homes grew worse over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic: between 2019 and 2021, the shortage of affordable, available rental homes for the nation’s lowest-income renters increased by 500,000 units, bringing the national shortage to 7.3 million affordable, available rental homes for households with extremely low incomes. These findings highlight the necessity of significant, targeted federal investments in affordable housing resources, including additional funding for rental assistance resources, and the need to build, maintain, and operate more units of deeply affordable housing.
National HoUSed campaign calls take place every other week. Our next call will be held on April 24 at 2:30 pm ET. Register for the call at: https://bit.ly/3ub2sWM