By Justin Godard, NLIHC housing advocacy organizer

September is NLIHC Membership Month, and this week we’re highlighting the ways our members support the development of invaluable data and tools useful to those fighting for more affordable housing. Without accurate data, making the case for investing in low income housing resources would be impossible. NLIHC serves this need by continually researching, developing, and distributing data and tools which accurately describe housing needs. One such tool is the National Housing Preservation Database (NHPD).

Created and maintained in partnership with the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC), the NHPD is an address-level inventory of all federally assisted rental housing in the United States. The benefit of such a tool is that it allows advocates to get a comprehensive understanding of the affordable housing stock in a community. It also allows users interested in perserving local affordable housing to get a clear understanding of which properties might be at risk of loss from the affordable housing stock.

Resources such as the NHPD are only possible through the support of our NLIHC Members! Join today!

NHPD Property Mapping Tool

The NHPD is utilized by a wide range of stakeholders, including practitioners, public officials, advocates, and researchers. It has been used for developing voter-engagement tools for assisted housing tenants,  identifying expiring Section 8 properties where tenants need to be organized to advocate for preserving their affordability, providing data for peer-reviewed journal articles about preservation, and many other purposes. The NHPD is also an important tool for NLIHC’s own research efforts.

Data and resources such as the NHPD are made possible through the contributions of our members. Consider supporting this work and join us!

Note: Nonprofits can sign up to use the NHPD for free; learn more at: https://preservationdatabase.org/

Organizations can also support the NHPD directly at: https://bit.ly/2NQTeh9 

This blog is part of a series of blogs highlighting NLIHC member-driven advocacy successes for Membership Month. Find out more about Membership Month at: https://bit.ly/2f16bCh 

By Joey Lindstrom, NLIHC manager for field organizing

This week, as part of membership month, we are highlighting the research, data, and tools that are made possible through the support of NLIHC members. State and Congressional Housing Profiles are used commonly by NLIHC members and advocates throughout the country to communicate key facts and figures about affordable housing shortages in their respective communities. The tools are designed to provide a local focus for communicating with policy makers or members of the media. Legislative staffers are often grateful for the handy information; housing profiles feature graphs and charts that show the shortage of affordable homes for extremely low income households in a state, housing cost burden by income group, the annual income needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent, and other important statistics that make the case for the expansion of affordable homes for the lowest income households.

Example: 2018 DC State Housing Profile

Housing Profiles are effective tools for lobby visits with members of Congress because they use empirically driven data to show the unmet needs of the lowest income households. The data tells a story of massive disinvestment for people struggling the most. This data provides a structured argument alongside the personal experience and stories that local advocates are ready to provide.

State and Congressional District Housing Profiles would not be possible without the support of NLIHC members! Join NLIHC today by clicking here.

During NLIHC’s 2018 lobby day over 50 members braved a snowstorm and partners conducted visits with more than 120 legislative offices to discuss NLIHC’s policy priorities, such as NLIHC’s opposition to housing benefit cuts, funding the THUD budget at the highest possible level, and expanding revenue for the national Housing Trust Fund. Housing Profiles were a key part of lobby day packets that participants used to advance their policy arguments.

Tools such as our Housing Profiles are only possible through the support and contributions made by our members. Consider supporting this work and join NLIHC today!

This blog is part of a series of blogs highlighting NLIHC member-driven advocacy successes for Membership Month. Find out more about Membership Month at: https://bit.ly/2f16bCh 

By Tori Bourret, NLIHC housing advocacy organizer and Mike Koprowski, Opportunity Starts at Home national campaign director

This week, as part of membership month, we’re highlighting collaborative efforts that will broaden the circle of organizations advocating for affordable homes for all. A key example is the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign. Together with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Children’s HealthWatch, Make Room, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness, NLIHC launched the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign this past winter to increase the political will to provide resources for affordable housing by bringing non-traditional voices to housing advocacy.

The campaign has an active steering committee that represents a wide range of national organizations that support the campaign’s goal and works together to address the affordable housing crisis. Representatives from advocacy sectors like education, healthcare, civil rights, anti-poverty, anti-hunger, faith-based and more are now convening to discuss how everyone can work together to bring about housing justice. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is part of the steering committee and a proud member of NLIHC.

“Accessing decent, safe and affordable rental housing is an enormous challenge for adults living with mental illness. NLIHC plays a critical role in convening diverse interests and achieving alignment on critical federal policies such as ensuring that HUD’s programs effectively target extremely low-income individuals and households. In addition, NLIHC has been successful in leading efforts to oppose cuts to important HUD programs such as Section 8, McKinney-Vento and Section 811.” -Andrew Sperling, NAMI’s Director of Legislative and Policy Advocacy and member of the Opportunity Starts at Home steering committee.

NLIHC is pleased to have members like NAMI recognize that affordable homes are inextricably linked to their own priorities and concerns. Meeting the needs of the lowest income households is effective when we work together to increase federal investments in proven solutions.

Opportunity Starts at Home is a team effort, with excellent leadership provided by numerous partners and supported with a substantial grant from the Funders for Housing and Opportunity. Much of the work NLIHC is able to put into this campaign, especially its development, has been informed and supported by our members.

We’re grateful for the members who help us launch exciting collaborations with new partners. Become an NLIHC member today!

This blog is part of a series of blogs highlighting NLIHC member-driven advocacy successes for Membership Month. Find out more about Membership Month at: https://bit.ly/2f16bCh 

By Justin Godard, NLIHC housing advocacy organizer

This week, NLIHC is celebrating membership month by highlighting the crucial ways in which our members help us create opportunities for dialogue and collaboration. Our dialogue is not just with elected officials and academics; low income renters with lived experience are an essential voice in our work and provide essential leadership in our movement. We kicked off our 2018 Policy Forum by welcoming more than 90 resident leaders to a special session titled “Resident Session: Movement Building and You.”

The session focused on how residents can tap into their own communities, organize, and lead movements for housing in their own communities. Dr. J Otis Smith, principal of Stand By Systems II, Inc. opened up the session by urging residents to tap into their leadership potential and be deliberate about building teams that make positive social impact and transformative change.

The annual resident session would not be possible without the support of NLIHC members! Join today!

Dr. J. Otis Smith leads a discussion on how residents can organize to achieve the greatest impact

The session featured examples where residents mobilized and demanded their voices be heard such as in Charlottesville, VA. Following their meeting at a prior NLIHC Resident Session, the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign teamed up with the Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR) of Charlottesville, an NLIHC member, to create a Section 3 exchange program between public housing residents, resident leaders, and Housing Authority leaders from Chicago and Charlottesville. Both Willie “J.R.” Fleming, Executive Director of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, and Joy Johnson, PHAR Board Member, shared how they were able to make the exchange a reality through collective action organizing.

“I enjoyed hearing how folks are organizing campaigns around the country,” said resident leader Whittier Dow of Philadelphia, PA. “It was interesting hearing about the impacts regular tenants had made through organizing their campaigns and how dedicated they were to their causes.”

NLIHC member Whittier Dow at the 2018 Resident Session

Events such as these are only possible through the support and contribution made by our members. Consider supporting this work and join us!

This blog is part of a series of blogs highlighting NLIHC member-driven advocacy successes for Membership Month. Find out more about Membership Month at: https://bit.ly/2f16bCh