On our most recent (October 4) call on “HoUSed: Universal, Stable, and Affordable Housing,” we welcomed Richard Cho and David Gonzalez Rice from HUD, who highlighted the department’s new House America initiative. House America is a federal initiative led by HUD and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) that aims to partner with mayors, city, county, and tribal leaders, and governors to use the historic resources provided in the American Rescue Plan Act to address the crisis of homelessness using a Housing First approach (see Memo, 9/27).
NLIHC’s Sarah Saadian provided updates from Capitol Hill, including on the ongoing negotiations on the “Build Back Better Act.” Recent reports indicate the $327 billion for housing and community development investments may be the first funds cut from bill, so advocates should continue taking action and urge congress to maintain the targeted affordable housing investments currently included, including NLIHC’s HoUSed campaign’s top policy priorities:
- $90 billion to expand housing vouchers
- $80 billion to repair and preserve public housing
- $37 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund to construct deeply affordable, accessible housing
Researchers from the Housing Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania Vincent Reina and Claudia Aiken discussed a new interactive report on the impact of a universal housing voucher program. The researchers found that a universal housing voucher program for households earning up to 50% of area median income (AMI) would help lift an estimated 4.9 million households out of poverty.
NLIHC’s Chantelle Wilkinson shared the results of a new national poll commissioned by the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign gauging public perception of affordable housing and policy solutions to the nation’s affordable housing crisis. The poll found that strong majorities of people support policy proposals related to residential mobility, emergency assistance, affordable housing construction in well-resourced neighborhoods, and other critical affordable housing issues.
Amie Fishman from the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California and Erin Feichtinger of Together, a non-profit based in Nebraska, provided field updates. NLIHC’s Sarah Gallagher and Emma Foley gave updates on NLIHC’s ERASE Project and the latest emergency rental assistance spending numbers.
Our next national call will be on Tuesday, October 12 at 2:30 pm ET. We will be joined by House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY), provide updates on the latest “Build Back Better Act” negotiations, hear updates from the field, and more.
Register for the upcoming call at: tinyurl.com/ru73qan
View presentation slides and watch the recording at: https://tinyurl.com/9vbmmues