On the Home Front

How are tenants involved in NLIHC’s fight for housing justice? A better question is: how are tenants not involved?

In our last post, tenant advocate Miracle Fletcher wrote about her experience attending NLIHC’s second annual Collective Retreat at the Resora in Albany, Georgia, last October. Made up of tenant leaders from around the country, the Collective gathered to discuss their shared goals for achieving housing justice and to engage in community healing in preparation for upcoming advocacy work. According to Miracle, attending the retreat “transformed my views and allowed me to see that we are all humans with pain and trauma, but we have the ability to love and grow as individuals through healing and acknowledgment of the disparities and traumas we experience from oppressive systems. This experience showed me how creating safe spaces for healing, listening, and expressing is a significant tool to enhance the overall success of our work as leaders.”

The annual Collective Retreat may be relatively new – last year’s was the second we’ve held – but involving tenants in our work has been a central part of our approach to advocacy since NLIHC was formed in 1974. Originally called the Ad Hoc Low Income Housing Coalition and then the Low Income Housing Information Service, NLIHC was first governed by a board with a majority of low-income people, with Tony Henry, a tenant organizer from Philadelphia, the first chair. Since then, we have consistently included people with low incomes in our campaigns and events. These days, NLIHC reserves six seats on our board for community leaders with low incomes, and we involve people with lived experience in every level and at every stage of our work, from formulating policy priorities, determining strategies and tactics, and creating advocacy materials, to meeting with policymakers, assessing policy implementation, and expanding our coalition.

Here are five key ways we involve tenants in our work:

The Collective: Formerly the Tenant Leader Cohort, NLIHC’s Collective is a group of resident advocates from around the country who have been involved in our federal housing policy advocacy in the past or who have been advancing the goal of housing justice in their own communities. In addition to participating in the annual retreat, members also engage in high-level policy planning and advocacy, often involving administration officials. In November 2022, for example, members attended a White House conversation on tenant protections. At the meeting, tenant leaders gave feedback to senior level officials with the Biden administration about the policies affecting their communities and suggested ways to improve tenant protections and advance housing equity. Likewise, during NLIHC’s 2023 Housing Policy Forum, several members took part in a fireside chat with HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, sharing with her the group’s top policy priorities for the federal government, including fair housing, environmental justice, addressing veteran homelessness, broadening mental health services, pursuing eviction prevention, and strengthening Section 3 to expand economic opportunities for tenants. Interested in joining the Collective? We’ll be taking applications later this spring – stay tuned for more information!

Tenant Talk: One of our flagship publications, Tenant Talk is a twice-a-year publication that engages low-income people in housing advocacy. Every issue includes articles written by tenant advocates and focuses on a different topic related to housing advocacy, like tenant protections, nonpartisan election engagement, or the intersections of the movements for affordable housing and LGTBQ+ rights. In addition to digital editions, we also publish print copies of Tenant Talk, as well as Spanish-language editions of every issue. Explore recent issues and download free copies here.

Tenant Talk Live: Tenant Talk Live is a monthly webinar series that provides opportunities for tenants to connect with NLIHC staff and one another to share best practices, learn how to influence federal housing policies, and discuss ways to lead in their communities. Typically held on Monday evenings, webinars focus on specific topics and are open to all tenants and resident leaders. Recent webinars have focused on Section 9, Federal Housing Finance Agency regulations, public housing, Section 3, senior housing, and methods for holding federal agencies accountable, among other topics. Calls often feature administration officials, giving tenants the chance to engage directly with those making and implementing the policies impacting them. Find out more and register for the next call here.

Tenant Sessions at NLIHC’s Housing Policy Forum: Every March, NLIHC hosts a Housing Policy Forum in Washington, D.C. The forum offers opportunities to engage with and learn from thought-leaders, policy experts, researchers, affordable housing practitioners, and leaders from Capitol Hill and the administration about the fight for housing justice in the U.S. In addition to an array of plenary sessions and keynote addresses by major figures in housing policy, the forum includes tenant leader sessions that are designed to provide learning and networking opportunities for low-income tenants prior to the start of the larger Housing Policy Forum. The tenant sessions engage tenant and community leaders in thoughtful discussions about tenant rights and protections and how best to influence federal housing policy to achieve housing justice for all. Last year, legendary freedom singer and civil rights activist Rutha Mae Harris gave a special presentation at one of the sessions. Register for this year’s Housing Policy Forum here.

On the Home Front blog: Welcome to our Hall of Mirrors! No blog post about the ways we involve tenants in our work would be complete without mention of our blog itself. From deep dives into housing policy, to the newest tools and databases, to articles like this one (dizzy yet?), On the Home Front keeps readers abreast of the latest in affordable housing advocacy with articles by NLIHC staff and other advocates. At the heart of the blog, however, are tenant testimonials – like Miracle’s – giving readers a window into the lived experience of low-income renters and a chance for tenants themselves to share their own stories with the world. Interested in writing for this blog yourself? Let us know by sending an email to: bschipporeit@nlihc.org