| The campaign released an updated version of its national policy agenda, “Within Reach: Ambitious Federal Solutions to Meet the Housing Needs of People with Low Incomes.” Written in collaboration with the OSAH campaign’s Steering Committee, Within Reach identifies short- and long-term policy strategies essential for Congress to act on to address the affordable housing crisis. Key recommendations include expanding rental assistance, increasing the supply of deeply affordable housing, and offering emergency financial support to households facing unexpected economic hardship.
The report features research demonstrating that housing is a critical driver of outcomes in many other areas of life, such as health, education, economic mobility, food security, poverty reduction.
The updated policy agenda also maintains its emphasis on advancing racial equity, stating that “Affordable housing (and housing broadly) has a long history rooted in racial and social injustice that must be remedied if we want to grow the economy, care for our seniors and people with disabilities, create safe communities and neighborhoods for everyone, improve food security, meet veterans’ needs, end homelessness, strengthen youth, support local businesses, and more.” |
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Campaign and the National Alliance to End Homelessness Host Congressional Briefing on Work and Homelessness in America
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| The campaign partnered with the National Alliance to End Homelessness to host a virtual congressional briefing on April 2 addressing the nationwide affordable housing crisis. The briefing featured remarks from Brian Goldstone, author of There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, a powerful book highlighting the challenges of rising rental costs and stagnant wages for working families. The briefing also featured a discussion on insights and solutions to address this urgent crisis and concluded with a call to action to urge members of Congress to protect HUD staff and funding from proposed cuts, support the highest level of funding possible for FY26, and support the OSAH campaign’s Bipartisan Housing Policy Package.
Briefing speakers included:
- Opening Remarks, Chantelle Wilkinson, OSAH Campaign Director
- Moderator, Julie Walker, OSAH Campaign Coordinator
- Brian Goldstone, Author, There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
- Steve Berg, Chief Policy Officer, National Alliance to End Homelessness
Chantelle Wilkinson opened the briefing with an overview of the affordable housing crisis and its impact on wage earners. Across the country, millions of wage earners struggle to afford stable housing for their families. More than 50% of wage earners cannot afford a modest one-bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent (FMR) while working one full-time job, and over 60% of wage earners cannot afford a modest two-bedroom rental home while working one full-time job.
Brian Goldstone provided remarks on the realities of families working full-time jobs while experiencing homelessness and the significant prevalence of this experience due to the national shortage of affordable housing and the disparity between rising rental costs and stagnant wages.
Julie Walker then moderated a discussion between Brian and Steve Berg, who each shared insights on common misunderstandings about people experiencing homelessness and ways to challenge these misconceptions, the structural changes needed to address the rising rate of homelessness, the potential impacts of proposed cuts to key housing and homelessness programs on communities, and steps policymakers can take to ensure long-term solutions.
Julie closed the briefing by encouraging attendees to bring what they learned about homelessness back to their colleagues to help dispel harmful misinformation and to influence housing policy in ways that can most effectively support those experiencing housing instability and homelessness. |
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Campaign Joins Panel on Pet Inclusive Affordable Housing at Humane World for Animals Annual Conference
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| The campaign participated in a panel presentation, “Exploring the Importance of Cross-Sector Collaboration and Data-Based Pet-Inclusive Housing Policy Advocacy,” at the 2025 Animal Care Expo hosted by Humane World for Animals (formerly the Humane Society). The panel focused on the connections between the affordable housing crisis and the well-being of people and pets while highlighting recent legislative efforts to improve outcomes. Panelists included Jessica Simpson, Senior Public Policy Specialist for Companion Animals at Humane World for Animals; Lauren Loney, Attorney/Founder of Lauren Loney Consulting, LLC and Research Assistant at the University of Denver Institute for Human Animal Connection (IHAC); and Julie Walker, OSAH Campaign Coordinator.
Panelists highlighted affordable housing access and tenant protections as critical components of the intersection between housing justice and animal welfare advocacy. Julie Walker provided an overview of the national affordable housing crisis and shared ways that housing and animal welfare advocates are collaborating through the OSAH campaign to advance housing solutions. Lauren Loney shared themes from interviews with tenants in Houston, Texas regarding barriers to finding and maintaining pet-inclusive affordable housing, policy recommendations created in collaboration with tenants, and the frequency of housing-related companion animal relinquishment across 21 animal shelters in the U.S. from a 2019-2023 study. Jessica Simpson defined pet-inclusive housing as “rental housing that welcomes all cats and dogs as pets, regardless of their breed and size; and does not have exorbitant financial barriers, including nonrefundable fees or high monthly pet rent.” Jessica went on to highlight the severely limited amount of pet-inclusive housing, the additional cost burdens created by monthly pet fees for extremely low-income tenants, and examples of recent pet-inclusive housing legislation and policies.
NLIHC’s 2025 Gap report finds that nationally nearly 1 in 4 renters have extremely low-incomes, and there is a shortage of 7.1 million rental homes affordable and available to extremely low-income renter households. Humane World for Animals estimates that approximately 20 million pets are living with families below the national poverty line. The shortage of affordable housing is even more constrained for households with extremely low-incomes who have pets, as only 8% of all market rate housing is pet inclusive without breed, weight, and size restrictions. Animal welfare advocates and housing advocates can work together to expand federal affordable housing subsidies and advance tenant protections for households with pets, to ensure that the lowest-income renters can afford safe, stable, and pet-inclusive housing. |
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Campaign Sends Letter to Congress Urging Leaders to Advance Bipartisan Housing Policy Package
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| 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. |
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Urge Congress to Protect HUD Programs and Staff
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| An estimated 23-30% of HUD staff have left the department, either by retiring, being placed on administrative leave, or accepting an offer for the Deferred Resignation Program. We are anticipating announcements of further reductions in workforce between now and May 18th, the deadline the agency has to develop a plan to layoff employees at or below a specific classification. Leaked documents from DOGE revealed plans to terminate at least half of HUD’s workforce. To keep the pressure on, advocates can contact their members of Congress to advocate for the protection of housing and homelessness programs and the HUD staff who ensure programs can access funding for their communities. |
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National Women’s Law Center Federal Workers Tracker
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| The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) created a resource to track the attacks on federal agencies, including HUD. The resource includes current numbers of staff members fired expected to be fired, the offices and programs impacted, and the repercussions of the reduction in workforce. For HUD, NWLC emphasizes that reductions will lead to “longer waitlists for housing assistance; inspection delays; delays in payments to landlords and vendors, risking evictions; delays in critical disaster aid; closing homeless shelters; and housing discrimination.” |
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Messaging Guidance: Matching Audience and Message to Meet Your Goals
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