Our Homes, Our Votes, Our New Hampshire, a nonpartisan candidate engagement partnership between NLIHC and Housing Action NH, hosted its first “coffee-with-the-candidate” event on Sunday, July 7, featuring Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Senator Gillibrand visited the Bradley Commons and Woodbury Mills affordable housing properties in Dover, NH. After a brief tour, Senator Gillibrand met with members of the community at a nearby barber shop, talked with local residents, and was welcomed into the home of one Bradley Commons family. She then engaged in a policy conversation with key New Hampshire housing advocates including Betsey Andrews Parker of Strafford County Community Action Program, Ben Frost of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, and Renee Woodard of The Housing Partnership. Elissa Margolin, director of Housing Action NH, moderated the conversation.
During the conversation, Senator Gillibrand acknowledged the affordable housing crisis and proposed a $50 billion annual investment in the national Housing Trust Fund. She also committed to appointing a HUD secretary “who understands the nature of homelessness as well as affordable housing.”
She voiced her commitment to addressing homelessness and affordable housing as part of her campaign for president, “I talked to a veteran earlier this morning who is so grateful that the housing is so safe. And it’s nice. And he feels part of a community. And frankly that’s what every human in this country deserves. We have to make sure that housing is a human right. And that we take the opportunity to do everything we can to bring the resources to bear to make that possible.”
To hear more of Senator Gillibrand’s proposals to address affordable housing, watch the video of the policy conversation on Housing Action NH’s twitter feed. Additional videos of other primary candidates discussing the affordable housing issue can be found on the national Our Homes, Our Votes website. There you will also find tools and resources for non-partisan engagement, tips for hosting non-partisan candidate forums, up-to-date tracking on what the 2020 presidential candidates are saying and proposing about affordable housing, and other voter-engagement resources.
Follow @OurHomesVotes on Twitter and @OHOV2020 on Facebook with the #OurHomesOurVotes2020 for the latest on our efforts to raise the profile of affordable housing in the 2020 elections.