On April 24, the campaign sent a letter to Congress urging them to advance a set of key legislation in any bipartisan housing package that moves forward in the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Sent by Campaign Director Chantelle Wilkinson, the letter calls for advancement of a comprehensive bill package that includes legislation to increase housing stability and economic mobility among low-income families; invest in cost effective eviction prevention tools; improve and streamline existing housing programs; cut red tape to build housing for people with the lowest incomes; improve oversight of federal disaster resources; expand and reform affordable housing development programs; and provide better access to fair and affordable housing. The bills highlighted in the letter include:
- The Eviction Crisis Act, endorsed by the campaign’s Steering Committee, builds on the successes and lessons learned from the more than 500 Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) programs created during the pandemic that helped millions of households avoid eviction and homelessness. The bill would create ongoing funding for proven interventions to help low-income households facing housing instability due to an unexpected economic shock. If enacted, the Eviction Crisis Act would create a critical tool to help low-income households forced to live on the edge of what they can afford.
- The Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act, endorsed by the campaign’s Steering Committee, would provide housing vouchers to 250,000 families with young children, along with mobility counseling, to help families with low-incomes access communities of their choice. Research shows that when children in families with low-incomes grow up in well-resourced neighborhoods with low poverty and crime, quality schools, and other resources they are significantly more likely to attend college and to earn more as adults over the course of their lifetimes. Expanding housing voucher access is critical to addressing our nation’s housing crisis, as only 1 in 4 households eligible for rental assistance currently receive it.
- The Reforming Disaster Recovery Act would permanently authorize the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program and provide important safeguards and tools to help ensure that federal disaster recovery efforts reach the lowest-income and most marginalized disaster survivors. Because the program is not currently authorized, HUD must issue new rules through a Federal Register Notice whenever Congress provides long-term disaster funding, slowing the distribution of funds and preventing states and municipalities from anticipating and preparing for the receipt of funding before disasters occur.
- The Fair Housing Improvement Act would expand the “Fair Housing Act” to prohibit discrimination based on source of income and military and veteran status.
- The Choice in Affordable Housing Act would reduce inspection delays, create landlord incentives, facilitate recruitment efforts with local property owners, and expand the use of Small Area Fair Market Rents. Such changes could increase voucher holders’ housing choices and reduce programmatic barriers to help attract and retain landlords in the program. To help renters on tribal land, the bill would also increase funding to the Tribal HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUDVASH) program.
- The Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) Act would require HUD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grantees to report on actions taken to address zoning and land use barriers. Developers are often burdened with restrictive zoning rules that delay or prevent new housing and further restrict communities’ economic development. The YIMBY Act would cut red tape that prevents the development of affordable housing.
- The Yes In God’s Back Yard Act would provide technical assistance to faith-based organizations and institutions of higher education wanting to use their existing land to increase or preserve the supply of affordable rental housing. It also creates challenge grants to provide additional resources to communities that adopt policies that remove barriers to the production and preservation of affordable rental housing on property owned by faith-based organizations and institutions of higher education.
- The Rural Housing Service Reform Act would improve the housing programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Housing Service (RHS) through several reforms, including decoupling rental assistance from maturing mortgages, permanently establishing the Multifamily Housing Preservation and Revitalization Demonstration (MPR), improving USDA’s Section 542 voucher program to better serve voucher holders, permanently establishing the Native Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Relending pilot program, and improving staff training and capacity within RHS.
- Reauthorizing he Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA) would provide critically needed updates and funding increases to the primary federal statute governing the development, operation and maintenance of housing in Tribal communities. Called “the backbone of Indian housing,” NAHASDA grants can be used for affordable housing activities that primarily benefit low-income Indian families living on Indian reservations and Alaska Native communities or in other Indian areas. Since its creation, Tribes and Alaska Native governments have used Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) funding to build or acquire almost 41,500 affordable homes and restore an additional 105,000 affordable homes on Tribal lands and Alaska Native communities. Despite its crucial role, NAHASDA has not been reauthorized in a decade.
Read the campaign’s letter to Congressional Leadership below:
Campaign-Letter-for-Housing-Solutions-FINALTo download, click here.