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.

News Round-Up: Support for Solutions

Often, housing news seems bleak. Low income tenants are subjected to deplorable living conditions, victims of domestic violence often find themselves choosing between staying in a violent home or becoming homeless, and renters whose landlords are in foreclosure don’t realize their right to stay in their homes. But a recent poll shows the American people are supportive of real solutions to our country’s housing challenges.

Nearly half the renters in the area of which Victoria, Texas is a part cannot afford to rent a modest two-bedroom apartment there at the Fair Market Rent. The Victoria Advcoate tells the story of how one woman and her granddaughter live on a low fixed income in a cheap apartment, where weak landlord-tenant laws and lax regulation can mean suffering for families who can’t afford better.

The shrinking supply of affordable housing means victims of domestic violence have fewer places to go when leaving unsafe relationships, according to RH Reality Check. The author says that “a national increase in the availability of both short-term shelters as well as long-term housing options” is essential to ensure that domestic violence survivors do not become homeless.

A British magazine for housers investigates the homelessness crisis in San Francisco and the work advocates are doing to solve it. Noting that NLIHC found San Francisco to be the most expensive metro area in the country to rent, the article points out that the shortage of affordable housing is the greatest impediment to ending homelessness for that city.

Multifamily Executive reports on new NLIHC research showing that renters still make up at least 40% of households impacted by foreclosure. Renters in low income and minority neighborhoods are disproportionately impacted by the foreclosure problem.

And now for the good news: Affordable Housing Finance, DSNews and Multifamily Executive all report on the poll released by NLIHC on October 9 that shows that the majority of Americans support modifying the mortgage interest deduction to make it more targeted to helping middle and low income households, and that 69% of Americans support federal government programs to support rental housing. NLIHC seeks to use the savings from mortgage interest tax reform to capitalize the National Housing Trust Fund, which, once funded, would build, rehabilitate and preserve affordable rental housing for the lowest income Americans.

News Round-Up: Foreclosed

Both the Charlotte Post and Affordable Housing Finance wrote about our recent report on the impact of the foreclosure crisis on renters. As AHF notes, we argue that “nationwide data must be made available to better assess the impact of foreclosures on renters and urges that 2009’s Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, which is set to expire at the end of 2014, be made permanent.”

We also call for immediate funding for the National Housing Trust Fund to build and rehabilitate housing affordable to extremely low income and very low income people. Making more housing available and affordable would be another way to protect renters, by ensuring access to housing at a rent lower income people can afford. Various funding proposals (PDF) exist for the NHTF, and NLIHC works to build support for them in Congress.

Protecting Renters from Foreclosure- Permanently.

The housing market is sending decidedly mixed signals to Americans: On the one hand, increases in new home construction are suggesting to analysts that the housing slump might finally be over, which could mean positive economic impacts outside of the housing construction sector. On the other hand, banks are sending increasing numbers of homes into foreclosure, putting the stability of many households at further risk.

What is for certain is that foreclosure has a serious, if often hidden, impact on renter households. Approximately 40% of families affected by foreclosure rent their homes. It used to be that these tenants could be evicted from their homes with as little as a few days notice, for no fault of their own. Thanks to the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009, when landlords go into foreclosure, bona fide tenants can now stay in their homes for the remainder of their lease or for at least 90 days. This legislation has prevented countless individuals and families from being uprooted from their homes and their lives.

There’s just one problem: The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act is set to expire in 2014. Foreclosure is clearly an ongoing problem, and NLIHC is among the many groups that believe this law should be ongoing as well.

Happily, Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) introduced legislation, the Permanently Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (H.R. 3619) that would make the the act a permanent law. H.R. 3619 would address the ongoing impact of the foreclosure crisis on renters by removing the sunset date, ensuring that renters have a basic level of federal protections irrespective of when their residence is foreclosed on. The legislation would also add a private right of action for tenants whose rights under the act have been violated. Giving the law some “teeth” will make it even more effective, and make it easier for renters to exercise their rights.

Right now, this bill needs cosponsors. We’re inviting organizations from across the country to sign on to a letter urging representatives to cosponsor the Permanently Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act. You can read the letter and sign your organization on today.

The deadline to sign on is Friday, July 20, so we urge any organization that may be interested to take action quickly to support the bill. Renters in your community will thank you.

Blameless

The foreclosure crisis has been devastating to homeowners and to communities. With the first waves of foreclosure, we saw families with subprime mortgages losing their homes. More and more, it’s long-term unemployment that is forcing homeowners into foreclosure. Less publicized in all of this has been the affect of foreclosure on renters.

Landlords are defaulting on their mortgages as well. NLIHC estimates that renters make up 40% of the households affected by foreclosure. In 2009, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, which provides substantial protections to tenants who are the blameless party in a foreclosure.

As this article in MSN Real Estate shows, however, renters don’t always know there is a law in place to protect them when their landlord faces foreclosure. Because renters must enforce their rights themselves, it is important for every renter to learn the facts about the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act and be prepared to take action. Tenants have the right to stay in their homes during foreclosure under almost every circumstance, thanks to the law.

At NLIHC, we still receive calls every day from renters who are unsure of their rights. More needs to be done to educate the public. Do you have an idea about how to get the word out to renters about the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Putting the Spotlight on Housing Problems in the Great Recession

This past week, NLIHC launched a new series of research briefs under the title Housing Spotlight.  Each issue will bring housing data to a broader audience in a format that highlights the meaning behind the numbers. We aim to bring you short, informative analyses on the most current data and NLIHC research as it is released, highlighting important trends relevant to affordable housing.

For our inaugural research brief, we illustrate the stresses on low income renters using data from the American Community Survey (ACS). There is much discussion about income inequality in the news today and our research brief highlights evidence from the ACS that demonstrates how the lowest income, most vulnerable households face undue burden in the housing market.

We find that hardship among renters is on the rise across all income groups. While the pace at which rents have increased slowed since 2007, rents continue to rise (from $824 in 2008 to $855 in 2010). Yet, while the rents keep inching up year after year, renters themselves have suffered setbacks.  Renter households were earning $31,891 in 2008. By 2010, their median income fell to $30,691. As a result of these two trends, renters are facing an increasing cost burden. By 2010, 53% of all renters faced a cost burden.

While housing affordability problems are affecting all renters, the lowest income groups are the most likely to face a housing cost burden. Among the pool of cost burdened renters, we know that about 83% earn less than $35,000. And, while very few renters earning above $75,000 face a housing cost burden, nearly all renters earning below $20,000 each year are burdened. NLIHC’s first Housing Spotlight illustrates that housing problems are not equally distributed among renters , the poorest households are facing the greatest obstacles to finding decent housing, and the Great Recession seems to be widening the divide.

The next issue of Housing Spotlight will dig into the latest data on the shortage of affordable and available units to low income households.  Future issues will discuss renters in foreclosure and the characteristics of the nation’s subsidized housing stock. Housing Spotlight will be provided first to NLIHC members as a member benefit. Want to be the first to receive Housing Spotlight? Join us!