The bipartisan Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act (S.1257, H.R.3776) would provide an additional 250,000 housing vouchers for families with young children to increase housing stability and offer them more choice in where they live. These housing vouchers are specifically designed for low-income families with young children to expand their access to neighborhoods of opportunity with high-performing schools, strong job prospects, and other resources. This legislation could largely eliminate homelessness among families with young children, as well as substantially reduce the number of children growing up in areas of concentrated poverty. This policy solution is a key priority of the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign and over 60 national organizations have endorsed the Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act.
Background
Representatives Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced the “Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act” (H.R.3776) in the U.S. House of Representatives on May 31. The bipartisan legislation would create 250,000 new housing vouchers, paired with mobility-related services, to help low-income families with young children move to communities of their choice, including neighborhoods with high-performing schools and high-quality childcare and early education programs. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced a companion bill (S.1257) in the U.S. Senate on April 25.
Learn more about the “Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act” here.
THE OPPORTUNITY STARTS AT HOME CAMPAIGN CALLS ON CONGRESS TO ENACT THIS LEGISLATION QUICKLY.
The Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act is an important and historic bipartisan effort that, if enacted, would dramatically improve the life trajectories of poor children by expanding their access to stable housing located in safe, well-resourced communities.
SEND THE LETTER BELOW TO YOUR elected officials URGING THEM TO SUPPORT THE family stability and opportunity vouchers act.
TAKE ACTION!
Please send the letter below to your federal elected officials urging them to support the Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act.
SEND THE CAMPAIGN’S LETTER TO CONGRESS
DEAR Congress,
The Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act, S.1257 and H.R.3776), which would create an additional 250,000 housing vouchers specifically designed for low-income families with young children to expand their access to neighborhoods of opportunity with high-performing schools, strong job prospects, and other resources. This legislation could largely eliminate homelessness among families with young children, as well as substantially reduce the number of children growing up in areas of concentrated poverty.
The Opportunity Starts at Home campaign calls on Congress to support this legislation. The Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act is an important and historic bipartisan effort that, if enacted, would dramatically improve the life trajectories of poor children by expanding their access to stable housing located in safe, well-resourced communities.
Low-income children facing housing instability and growing up in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty are more likely to struggle in school, more likely to experience adverse health outcomes, and less likely to climb the income ladder as adults. In the United States, roughly 700,000 extremely low income families with young children pay more than half their income for rent, which forces them to make impossible choices between paying for rent and paying for other necessities like food, transportation, and medicine. This creates toxic stress in the home, which can affect children’s brain development and lead to learning, behavioral, and mental health problems.
Where housing is located matters, too. Neighborhoods often determine what schools children attend, how much violence families are exposed to, and children’s exposure to environmental toxins that can contribute to chronic conditions like asthma. Every year that low-income children spend in very poor neighborhoods hinders how they fare as adults. By contrast, research shows that when children in poor families grow up in neighborhoods with low poverty, quality schools, and low crime, they are significantly more likely to attend college, less likely to become single parents, and more likely to earn dramatically more as adults over the course of their lifetimes. This helps break cycles of generational poverty and produces a positive taxpayer return. Research also shows that low-income students perform better academically and close achievement gaps faster when housing assistance enables them to live stably in opportunity neighborhoods with lower-poverty schools.
Housing vouchers are among our most effective tools to prevent housing instability and homelessness. They have played a key role in reducing homelessness among veterans, people with disabilities, and people experiencing chronic homelessness. But there are not enough of them. In fact, 3 in 4 households eligible for federal rental assistance do not receive it due to chronic funding limitations. And for eligible households that are fortunate enough to receive a voucher, many of them want to move to new neighborhoods so their children can grow up in areas with better schools and other advantages.
The Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act of 2021 would:
- Create an additional 250,000 housing vouchers for high-need families with young children. Pregnant person and families with a child under age 6 would qualify for these new vouchers if they have a history of homelessness or housing instability, live in an area of concentrated poverty, or are at risk of being displaced from an opportunity area.
- Provide families receiving the new vouchers with access to counseling and case management services that have a proven track record of helping families move out of poverty, supporting parents, and improving childhood outcomes. Counselors would explain the potential benefits of living in neighborhoods that produce better outcomes for children and they would advise families how to overcome possible barriers, such as poor credit history.
The bill’s resources would also enable housing agencies to implement practices to help all the families they serve by engaging new landlords in the voucher program, improving families’ access to information about housing available in high-opportunity neighborhoods, and identifying community-based supports for families as they move to new neighborhoods.
For more information about the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign and its advocates, please see: www.opportunityhome.org
Take Action! Fill in your information below and this letter will be sent to your elected officials when you click submit.