Our Favorite Accomplishments of 2012

We emailed our supporters last week to do a little bragging about what we’ve been up to this year. This has been such a busy year for the National Low Income Housing Coalition that we couldn’t fit all our work into one email! Instead, we thought we’d share some of our staff’s other favorite 2012 accomplishments here on our blog.

National Housing Preservation Database

Project-based housing is a crucial part of our national strategy to prevent and end homelessness. But some of this housing is at risk of leaving the affordable inventory for a variety of reasons. Preserving this housing is good policy; it is a cost-effective way to invest in our communities.

The National Housing Preservation Database is a powerful new tool for preserving America’s affordable rental housing. The database provides communities with the information they need to effectively preserve their stock of public and assisted housing. It is part of NLIHC’s longstanding, data-driven effort help preserve this vital supply of affordable rental homes.

State Housing Profiles

We’ve always provided housing advocates with Congressional district-level information on the housing need in their communities. This year, NLIHC launched our State Housing Profiles, which provide key information about the housing available to extremely low income people, and the need for that housing, in each state. This information is perfect to use when advocating with your Senators, as well as with state legislators and your governor.

2011 Annual Report

Our 2011 annual report, Dedication, tells the story of NLIHC’s dedication to leadership, empowerment, analysis, and collaboration, and to our members and other supporters, using the new color scheme, logo and icons developed in concert with our new website.

Renters in Foreclosure: A Fresh Look at an Ongoing Problem

In 2009 NLIHC worked to help enact the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA), a law to ensure that renters in foreclosure have the right to at least 90 days’ notice before having to move after a foreclosure. Currently, the law is set to expire at the end of 2014 unless Congress takes further action. Our new research shows that the number of renters impacted by the foreclosure crisis has grown over the last three years, and if the law expires, these renters will be once again vulnerable to eviction with minimal notice. As such NLIHC has worked this year to line up support for efforts in the House and Senate that would make the PTFA a permanent and stronger law.

We’ve worked hard this year to advance socially just housing policy that assures the lowest income Americans have access to affordable and decent homes. If you agree that these accomplishments are important and if you value our work, please make a year-end donation to the National Low Income Housing Coalition so that we can continue to be strong advocates for the housing needs of low income people in 2013.

New Affordable Housing Preservation Tool Empowers Advocates to Save Housing

Have you ever wanted to get a list of all of the federally assisted multifamily properties in your community, but couldn’t find one that was truly comprehensive? Have you ever wished you could see if a property had more than one subsidy attached to it, but didn’t want to have to go to multiple datasets to do it? Do you want to be able to see which affordable properties in your community have upcoming contract expiration dates so you can focus your efforts on ensuring those properties remain affordable? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then you will be happy to hear that a new tool is now available that will allow you to do all of the above and much more!

The National Housing Preservation Database is an address-level database of all federally subsidized multifamily properties in the country. It includes information on properties with the following types of assistance:

• HUD Project-Based Rental Assistance.
• HUD Insured Mortgages (including Section 236 and Section 221(d)(3) BMIR).
• Section 202 Direct Loans.
• Low Income Housing Tax Credits.
• HOME Rental Assistance.
• Rural Development Section 515.
• Rural Development Section 538.
• Public Housing.

This database contains the most comprehensive information about the location and status of over 70,000 properties and 3.5 million units.

We encourage you to take some time to explore this brand new resource. There is a “Preservation Tool” that allows you to search for specific types of properties in the geography of your choice, and there is a “Research Tool” that allows you to download the entire dataset. A detailed User Guide provides more information on how to use each of these tools. You can also view a map of all of the federally subsidized properties in your community on this website.

Affordable housing advocates know how vital the existing stock of project-based housing is to low income households in this country and have been waiting for a tool like this that might assist them in their efforts to identify and preserve this housing. Many cities and states have created similar databases for their locality and local governments, tenant organizers, nonprofit developers and others have used these databases to preserve affordable housing in those communities. Now, it is possible for people all over the country to create similar databases and coalitions.

If you are interested in creating a local database that includes properties with state and local subsidies from this larger database, feel free to contact Megan Bolton, Research Director at NLIHC at megan@nlihc.org.

Let us know what you think of the database and the mapping tool, and share with us how you might use this information to preserve affordable housing in your community. Let’s talk preservation in the comments!

How to Use NLIHC’s New Congressional District Profiles

This past week, NLIHC updated our Congressional District Profiles. The profiles are an important tool for housing advocacy, updated throughout the year as new data becomes available. The most recent update incorporates newly available five-year Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) data. This update also reorganized the profiles, making it even easier to find the data relevant to your congressional district, and to compare housing needs across different income groups.

Advocates can use the profiles when meeting with Congressional staffers in a local district office or on Capitol Hill, to describe the extent to which additional affordable rental housing is needed locally.

When you meet with your Member of Congress or Member’s staff to discuss the need for affordable housing units, you can open the discussion by citing the number of severely burdened, extremely low income households living in your district.

For example, if you are a resident of Minnesota’s 5^th Congressional District, you can point out that over 38,000 extremely low income households live in the area. Among these households, 22,572 households (59%) face a severe housing cost burden. This means they pay over 50% of their income towards rent. Access to affordable housing would alleviate that burden for these families, allowing them to cover other bills and expenses, including healthcare, child care and transportation.

The Congressional District Profiles demonstrate that extremely low income households consistently face a severe housing cost burden, in large part because the poorest households in most districts have the fewest rental units affordable and available to them.

As the profile for the 5^th District indicates, that community has an immediate need for about 24,000 additional housing units to serve ELI households. Advocates should explain to Members and their staff that the National Housing Trust Fund is a solution to this housing shortage. The trust fund will directly address this demand for rental housing by providing additional resources towards expanding the supply of affordable housing in the district.

We hope housing advocates across the country find the profiles to be a useful advocacy tool. For more information on using the profiles or suggestions for when and how to weigh in with your Members of Congress, contact our outreach team at outreach@nlihc.org.

New Issue of Tenant Talk Available

Where can advocates get a refresher on the FY13 budget process for housing programs, a summary of important facts from Out of Reach and Housing Spotlight, an update on minimum rents and the Moving to Work demonstration program, and a review of NLIHC’s 2012 conference and new website? The answer is in the most recent issue of Tenant Talk, NLIHC’s quarterly newsletter for tenants, renters and residents that engages low income people in housing advocacy!

This issue also includes a section where readers can write questions into Tenant Talk; here is an excerpt:

Dear Tenant Talk,

NLIHC’s new website looks great! Is there still a way that I can use it to find out information on my federal representatives?

C.H., Richmond, VA

Dear C.H.,

Absolutely. As with our old site, you can type in your zip code in the section titled “Contact Congress” to immediately find out who your elected officials are and how you can reach them. Now “Contact Congress” is located on the right hand side of every page on the site. Just above that on the website, you’ll see a box where you can sign up to take action. By sharing your contact information with us, you’ll receive our Calls to Action, which alert you to the ways you can advocate on a range of housing issues. We hope you’ll explore our new website even further! You’ll find housing policy fact sheets, our most recent research, information about how to become an NLIHC member, and more!

In case you aren’t one of the thousands of individuals who already receive Tenant Talk in your mailbox or e-mail inbox, getting it delivered directly to you is easy! Just e-mail outreach@nlihc.org with your contact information.

In the mean time, we hope you check out the Spring 2012 issue, available online here.

New Series: Advocates in the Spotlight

Many people, from staff and board members to conference attendees and members, work with the Coalition to help us achieve our mission. Today’s post is the first in an ongoing series spotlighting different types of advocates on our blog, from people in the field to those behind-the-scenes working in our office every day. 

To kick off this new  series, we turned to a long-time staff member who recently took on a new role at the Coalition.

Name: La’Teashia Sykes

Relation: NLIHC State Coalition Project Director

As the new State Coalition Project Director, how would you describe the project in your own words?
The project is essential to the work we do here at NLIHC. It allows us to work closely with premier state-wide organizations that are dedicated to making sure those with the greatest need have affordable and decent homes. Our state coalition partners inform our work with knowledge of what’s happening on the ground and we provide support for them to do their work at the state and federal levels. When I think about how NLIHC and our partners work together, it really is a true partnership!

You have been with NLIHC for 4 1/2 years now, starting as a Policy Intern and then moving to work on the Outreach Team. What are you most excited for with your new position?
As a policy intern, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in specific policies and pieces of legislation we work on. As an Outreach Associate, I primarily worked to engage our members in our work and mobilize our field base. As the Director of the State Coalition Project I get to combine my previous experiences with NLIHC into one, hone these skills and develop new ones.  Also, our partners have a wealth of knowledge and experience. I’m excited to learn from these folks and work with them toward our mission.

Are there any specific goals you might have for state partners or for the project as a whole?
My constant goal is to discover unique opportunities to support the work of partners with the resources we have. I also want to collaborate with our networks in SD, TN, MS, NV, MT, WV, MD, OK, ID, IA – all states in which we do not have a partner – to cultivate statewide organizations for partnership. I invite any advocates in those states to reach out to me with suggestions of housing advocacy organizations that share the same mission as NLIHC!

My favorite NLIHC resource is… Out of Reach. I like how this annual report breaks down housing information by state and by county. It’s a great tool to place in the hands of local advocates, and our state partners are the ones who both use the resource to its full potential and get the word out so others can too.

I am a housing advocate because… housing is essential to life and one’s ability to succeed in this life. Something so important should be financially attainable, healthy, and safe for everyone, especially those with the lowest incomes.

To learn more about NLIHC’s State Coalition project, visit www.nlihc.org/whatwedo/outreach/state.

Become a stronger advocate with Memo to Members!

“… SEMINAL NEWS AGGREGATOR, MOST WIDELY CITED SOURCE BY HOUSING POLICY STAKEHOLDERS (NONPROFITS, THINK TANKS, ADVOCATES, GOVERNMENT STAFF).”

- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and CSB consulting. Online Housing Resources: Current Landscape & Usage. October, 2011.

How did you start off the week yesterday morning? If it wasn’t with Memo to Members then you should join the 4,000+ housing advocates who get NLIHC’s acclaimed weekly newsletter e-mailed directly to them every Monday morning. It’s easy – by becoming a member of NLIHC, you can stay up-to-date with all the latest housing-related news from Capitol Hill, HUD and the Administration; the latest research on housing and related issues; and major updates from our state coalition partners and other housing advocacy organizations from across the country. Read by everyone from community and resident organizers to reporters to members of the Administration and Congressional staff, Memo is a must-read for any housing advocate. Support this critical publication by joining NLIHC today!

Top stories from this week’s issue of Memo to Members include:

• Eight National Organizations Send Letter to HUD, OMB, DPC Urging Regulatory Actions
• House and Senate Focus on Budget and Appropriations
• Houses Passes VAWA Legislation
• House Meeting on HOME Documents Requested From HUD
• Bill on Homeless Veterans Introduced
• HUD Releases Section 811 NOFA
• Proposed Project-based Voucher Rule Implements 2008 HERA Changes

Already getting Memo? What’s your favorite part of our weekly newsletter? Is it the in-depth coverage of housing policy developments, the review of important new research reports, or the updates on events and resources we think advocates would like to know about? Let us know, and thanks for your support!

We need the facts – We need the ACS.

Many Americans probably wonder how decisions are made about what federal, state, and local funds will be spent on. At all levels of government, one of the most useful tools for understanding the needs of a community and for determining how funds are spent is the American Community Survey (ACS). At NLIHC and throughout the affordable housing field, ACS data are used to determine the need for affordable housing, making this resource extremely important to the work we do. Here’s how it works:

Approximately three million households across America participate in the ACS every year, providing timely data on the social, economic, demographic, and housing characteristics of the U.S. population.

NLIHC and other affordable housing organizations use the ACS data to produce resources and educational tools such as Out of Reach, the Congressional District Profiles, and other research reports like editions of Housing Spotlight.

Policy makers, academics, researchers, and advocates learn about real economic and housing trends in communities across America from the ACS data, helping our country make informed decisions on how to spend more than $400 billion in federal and state funds every year.

The House votes to eliminate the ACS Survey.

Wait, something isn’t right here – but you read that right… Much to our surprise, last week the House passed a bill with an amendment sponsored by Representative Daniel Webster (R-FL) that would eliminate all funding for the ACS. It also approved an amendment sponsored by Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) that would make the ACS voluntary. Research shows that a voluntary ACS would make the survey more expensive, less accurate, and less beneficial for research purposes.

So what’s the next line in this story?

Housing advocates and concerned citizens alike use their voices to ensure that this critical national survey is continued in a way that maintains its statistical reliability.

You can join NLIHC and do just that, and here’s how:
•    As an organization:  Sign on to a letter urging Senators to continue funding the ACS in its FY13 appropriations bill. The letter was produced by the Census Project, a coalition of organizations including NLIHC that is dedicated to a fair and accurate census. Sign on by emailing Brendan Nichols (bnichols@ccmc.org) your organization’s name and the city and state in parentheses. Click here to read the letter; the deadline is close of business TODAY so sign-on now!
•    As an individual:  Call your Senator and urge them to protect this critical housing data tool.  You can also contact your Senators directly by calling the Congressional switchboard at 877-210-5351 to be connected to your Senators’ offices. Or enter your zip code into the “Contact Congress” box on the bottom of the right side bar at www.nlihc.org.

NLIHC and other advocates tell a story of a country desperately in need of more affordable housing. But what makes this story so important and compelling are the hard facts behind it. The ACS provides critical data on the incomes and housing conditions for households across America. These data are what strengthens the argument made by NLIHC that there is a lack of, and need for, more affordable housing. And that’s why these data, and this story, are so important.

News Round-up: the ACS.

After the Thursday release of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), local, state, and national news outlets were quick to release coverage on the data. And it’s no wonder why; the ACS data provide a stark look at economic distress among an ever growing number of renters nationwide. The ACS is an annual survey of three million households that provides the public with demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics of the American population. After mining this data, our Research team discovered that while wages are stagnating, rental costs continue to rise and more renters nationwide are housing cost burdened.

(Housing cost burdened households spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs.)

You might have seen that our Research team took over our Twitter account last Friday, tweeting #ACSdata all day. They also wrote about some of the data for this week’s Memo to Members. One especially revealing piece of the ACS data are the ongoing difficulties renters’ nationwide struggle with to find affordable housing.

The rise in cost burdened renters can be traced to the loss of affordable units and the overall decline in rental units at lower price points. Although the availability of units renting for more than $1,000 a month rose by nearly 800,000 units, to 37% of the rental market, those renting for $500 or less shrunk to only 14% of the total number of units.

Our Research team also takes a deeper look at the problems with affordable housing and releases the resulting report every spring, Out of Reach. This annual report provides an estimated housing wage; a figure that represents the hourly wage needed to afford a modest apartment unit, on average, nationwide and in every state, metropolitan area and county in the county.  Reflecting the rising costs of rental housing in America, this past year the Housing Wage rose to $18.46 an hour.

NLIHC Research Assistant Elina Bravve breaks it down:

“Our study of wages nationwide indicates that renters consistently come up short of the Housing Wage in reality. So, as rental costs continue to edge upwards, the number of housing cost burdened renters nationwide grows, as indicated by the 2010 ACS data.”

To cope with rising housing costs, renters must either find a second job, no easy feat in today’s economy, or spend an increasing proportion of their wages on housing.  In some high cost states, balancing over three full time minimum wage jobs would be required to afford Fair Market Rents. This Wall Street Journal infographic (based on Out of Reach data) shows how “as housing cost has risen, so has the number of jobs needed to afford to rent a two-bedroom home.”

Twitpic via @Seth_Hamblin of WSJ infographic featuring OOR data

Has there been a particularly good article that you have read recently on the ACS data? Share any local stories that did a note-worthy job covering this housing problem that renters are struggling with across the country.