With August Recess drawing to a close, congressional leaders are returning to Washington. D.C., giving advocates new opportunities to make the case for expanding affordable housing for the lowest-income renters and adopting proven solutions for ending homelessness. Strengthen your advocacy efforts with the latest in NLIHC resources and data!
NLIHC offers a broad range of databases, factsheets, profiles, publications, and other tools for housing advocates, including the following:
Housing Needs by State: This resource provides state profiles recording the shortage of rental homes affordable and available in each state for the lowest-income households, the number of affordable and available homes per 100 renter households at different income levels in states, housing cost burdens by income groups, and information about the demographic make-up of extremely low-income renter households. The resource offers a valuable collection of data sets and includes a compelling factsheet to present to senators and their staffs. The Congressional Housing District profiles for your state can be found under the resources tab on each state profile. These data sheets are especially helpful for use in meetings with representatives who might not believe statewide data applies to the people in their districts.
NLIHC Housing First Page: This page includes general introductory information about Housing First as a strategy to end homelessness, including:
- Why Housing First is a critical strategy for ending homelessness.
- Research on the effectiveness of Housing First.
- Information on how Housing First cut veteran homelessness in half.
- An explanation of how Housing First supports recovery from substance use disorders.
- Key facts about Housing First.
State Housing Preservation Profiles: These Preservation Profiles use data from the National Housing Preservation Database to provide an overview of the affordable housing inventory at the state level. Each profile features a graph depicting the number of affordable homes with subsidies set to expire in the near future. The data sheet makes the argument for furthering investments before many developments convert to market rents.
The Gap 2023 State Profiles: The data available here show the gap between the number of renter households and the number of rental units that are affordable and available to them. The resource also breaks down the number of households that are cost-burdened by income group. Much of the data is also available on the State Housing Profiles.
Out of Reach 2023: This annual report shows that affordable rental homes are out of reach for millions of low-wage workers and their families. The report calculates national, state, and metropolitan area “Housing Wages,” which are estimates of the hourly wages full-time workers must earn to afford rental homes at fair market rent without spending more than 30% of their income on the cost of rent. The report shows the national Housing Wage is far higher than federal or state minimum wages and higher than median wages in some of the country’s most common occupations.
For more information, contact NLIHC Policy Manager Kim Johnson at [email protected].