Oppose cuts. Increase investments in affordable housing and homelessness.
In its hoUSed Campaign advocacy toolkit: “Oppose Dramatic Cuts to Federal Investments in Affordable Housing,” the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) urges Congress to oppose cuts to federal investments in affordable housing and homelessness and instead provide the highest level of funding possible to serve more households struggling to afford a roof over their head.
The toolkit suggests the talking points below to oppose the cuts/increase funding Find your Congresspeople and their contact information here and then choose a few talking points that best work for you.
- Everybody needs an affordable, accessible, quality place to call home, where they don’t have to choose between paying the rent and putting food on the table or paying for medications. Federal investments in affordable housing provide households with the resources they need to afford a roof over their head. Rather than cutting housing investments, we need to expand housing assistance to ensure it is universally available to every eligible household.
- To end homelessness and housing poverty throughout the country, our nation must significantly expand – not slash – investments to make homes affordable and accessible to people with the lowest incomes. Today, only a quarter of the households who qualify for housing assistance will get the help they need. Dramatic spending cuts will force these households to wait even longer for the help they need.
- Federal affordable housing investments lift millions of families out of poverty. Without this investment, many of these households would experience homelessness, live in substandard or overcrowded conditions, or struggle to pay rent and meet other basic needs.
- Research has shown that when families have stable, decent, and accessible homes that they can afford, they are better able to find employment, achieve economic mobility, perform better in school, and maintain improved health. Dramatic cuts to housing investments will harm health and education outcomes, leading to harmful consequences for generations.
- We need federal investments in affordable housing more than ever to sustain our communities and help improve lives. More families struggling to make ends meet, rents are rising, eviction filings are reaching pre-pandemic levels nationally and have exceeded them in Minnesota, and homelessness is increasing in many communities.
- Congress should NOT balance our nation’s budget on the backs of our nation’s lowest-income and most marginalized people and families who are already struggling to get by. Using households struggling to make ends meet for political gain is cruel and unconscionable.
- HUD provides essential resources to help millions of low-income seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, families with children, and others afford stable and safe housing. If federal housing resources are cut dramatically, low-income households may lose access to stable housing, putting them at increased risk of homelessness.
- Federal housing investments reduce homelessness and housing instability, support thriving communities, and encourage economic recovery and growth.
For a decade, our nation lost ground in addressing America’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis because of the dramatic spending cuts required by Congress. Our communities and neighbors are worse off because of these spending cuts.
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