During the most recent national call on “HoUSed: Universal, Stable, Affordable Housing,” we heard from Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) about the critical affordable housing investments needed in an infrastructure package, and his bill to provide 500,000 new mobility housing vouchers. We discussed the Biden administration’s efforts to distribute stimulus checks to people experiencing homelessness; funds for affordable housing provided in the American Rescue Plan Act; developments on the CDC eviction moratorium; and new research on immigrant families’ access to COVID assistance programs. We also heard the latest from Capitol Hill and received field updates.
Senator Van Hollen announced reintroduction of the bipartisan “Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act” (S.3083), led by Senators Van Hollen and Todd Young (R-IN). If enacted, the bill would create 500,000 new vouchers for families with young children to move to areas with greater access to resources and opportunities (see Memo, 6/14).
Gene Sperling, White House American Rescue Plan coordinator and senior advisor to the President, discussed new programs to help ensure people experiencing homelessness receive stimulus checks and are able to access the Child Tax Credit program expanded under the American Rescue Plan Act. NLIHC’s Kim Johnson and Alayna Calabro talked about the Treasury’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds and discussed NLIHC’s fact sheet on using Fiscal Recovery Funds for affordable housing. NLIHC’s Sarah Saadian gave an overview of our recent letter to the Biden administration urging them to extend the CDC’s eviction moratorium, currently set to expire at the end of June.
Urban Institute’s Genevieve Kenney detailed a report that found low-income immigrant families were deeply impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, yet avoided safety net programs. We received field updates from Marqueia Watson of the Greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness, Matthew Campbell of NAACP Mississippi State Conference, and Sara Miller of the HOPE Policy Institute.
NLIHC hosts national calls every week. On today’s call, we will be joined by HUD Senior Advisor, Richard Cho. Register for today’s call (June 21 at 2:30 pm ET) at: https://tinyurl.com/ru73qan
View recording of the call at: https://tinyurl.com/yhnfbu45
View presentation slides at: https://tinyurl.com/42xxvhdb