Right now, the Senate is considering the House-passed Build Back Better package, a historic economic recovery package that includes significant investments in housing, including $25 billion to expand rental assistance to more than 300,000 households, $65 billion to preserve public housing for its 2.5 million residents, and $15 billion for the national housing fund to build and preserve over 150,000 affordable and accessible homes for households with the lowest incomes.
Your voice matters. Join us in keeping up pressure on Senate Democrats to protect housing investments in the Build Back Better legislation and honor their promise to expand housing access for our communities.
CONTACT YOUR SENATORS
Click “Send Email” on the right to contact your Senators!
Note that you will be able to contact only Senate Democrats because Senate Republicans are not involved in these negotiations. Please make sure you personalize the text in brackets.
Sample Script: “I’m your constituent from [CITY/TOWN], and I urge you to protect the historic investments in affordable homes in the Build Back Better legislation as passed by the House. The targeted affordable housing investments included in this package — $25 billion in rental assistance, $65 billion for public housing, and $15 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund — will do tremendous good for millions of low-income people across the country.
Our nation faces a growing disparity between rising housing costs and stagnant incomes for people with the lowest incomes and a severe shortage of rental homes affordable to the lowest-income renters. The private sector cannot – on its own – build and maintain homes affordable to the lowest-income renters without federal support, but Congress has chronically underfunded key affordable housing programs for decades. Only one in four households who qualify for housing assistance receives it, and nationally we lose 10,000 to 15,000 units of public housing every year to obsolescence or decay, with additional units falling into disrepair.
The Build Back Better legislation directly addresses these issues by expanding rental assistance to bridge the gap between wages and housing costs for America’s lowest-income households, and by investing in the preservation of the nation’s public housing infrastructure and the building of new homes affordable to people with the greatest needs through the national Housing Trust Fund.
Because housing is linked to nearly every measure of having a high-quality life, the housing investments in the Build Back Better Act will have broad positive impacts on things like racial equity, closing the education gap, improving health, supporting economic mobility, and reducing poverty.
I urge you to work with your colleagues to quickly enact the Build Back Better Act and these critical investments in rental assistance, public housing, and the national Housing Trust Fund. Thank you.”
Amplify on Social Media: Use and share widely the Build Back Better Digital Advocacy Toolkit which includes talking points, sample op-eds, and social media messages.
- Our community members deserve a safe place to call home. The Build Back Better legislation provides $$ for rental assistance, public housing, & the Housing Trust Fund will reduce poverty and keep low-income renters #HoUSed. #BuildBackBetter
- #BuildBackBetter includes over $150B in robust funding to build & maintain affordable homes through the national Housing Trust Fund, vouchers, rental assistance and more. Urge Senators to protect these investments and honor their commitment to expand housing access for our communities.
- Congress must advance anti-racist policies and provide the large-scale, sustained investments and reforms needed to ensure renters with the lowest incomes have an affordable place to call home. #BuildBackBetter
Additional Resources:
- Survey on COVID-related Evictions
- NHLP Evictions Survey: What’s Happening on the Ground (Fall 2021)
- NHLP Stopping COVID-19 Evictions Survey Results (July 2020)
- End Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) Project
- NLIHC updated the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Dashboard “Spending Tracker” to include spending progress for both the first and second rounds of ERA. The dashboard’s accompanying ERA Spending Tracking spreadsheet provides additional details.
- NLIHC 12/8 letter to Treasury
- Utility Arrears in Massachusetts
- NCLC Report on Utility Arrears in Massachusetts (November 2021)
- NCLC’s COVID-19 Resources
- Energy and Utility COVID-19 Resources
- A Roadmap to Utility Service as a Human Right
- Implementing a Roadmap to Utility Service as a Human Right
- The Need for Utility Reporting of Key Credit and Collections Data Now and After the COVID-19 Crisis
- North Carolina Housing Coalition
- Housing Initiative at Penn and National Low Income Housing Coalition
- Treasury Emergency Rental Assistance Programs in 2021: Preliminary Analysis of Program Features and Spending Performance
- NLIHC’s HoUSed Campaign for Long-Term Housing Solutions
- National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC)
Thank you for taking action, and please share this alert with your networks!