From the National Low Income Housing Coalition (http://www.nlihc.org):
After months of harmful and unnecessary delays, Senate Republicans released today a coronavirus relief package that would leave millions of America’s lowest-income renters at risk of evictions and homelessness due to the pandemic. It also leaves people currently experiencing homelessness without any of the resources they need to stay safe during this public health crisis.
Congress needs to hear from advocates TODAY! Please contact your senators and representatives and tell them that it is immoral and unacceptable to allow people to lose their homes during a pandemic. It has never been clearer that housing is healthcare!
Take Action Today
Contact your senators and representatives today and tell them that the Senate proposal is unacceptable and that Congress must pass the essential housing provisions of the HEROES Act. Find the phone numbers of your members of Congress here or send an email at https://nlihc.secure.force.com/actions/TakeActionNew?actionId=AR00928!
Use NLIHC’s Advocacy Toolkit to urge Congress to take immediate action to ensure housing stability.
Call out the need for #RentReliefNow on social media, using our sample social media posts and images. Tag your member of Congress and demand action!
Publish op-eds and letters to the editor in your local papers using NLIHC’s media toolkit here.
Background
Without a significant and sustained federal intervention, between 19 million and 23 million renters may lose their homes in the coming months. The wave of evictions has already begun; Congress must act to prevent it from being a tsunami, and we are running out of time.
Despite the clear and urgent need, Senate Republicans propose only $3.3 billion to assist those households living in public housing or receiving HUD vouchers or USDA rental assistance. The proposal includes no emergency rental assistance for the millions of unassisted households facing evictions and homelessness during the pandemic. The proposal also fails to extend the federal moratorium on evictions that expired last week due or to expand it to cover all renters. The proposal includes no resources to prevent and respond to outbreaks among people experiencing homelessness who are at great risk of severe illness and death due to the virus. And it calls for slashing unemployment insurance (UI) payments for millions of low-wage workers who lost jobs during the pandemic, many of whom have used the benefits to stay housed.
This lack of housing protections and insufficient resources is unconscionable and unacceptable. It is also shortsighted; evictions risk lives, drive families deeper into poverty, further burden overstretched hospital systems, and make it much more difficult for the country to contain the virus. And, as NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel described in a press statement, the proposed funding “is a drop in an ocean of need among unsubsidized renters and people experiencing homelessness.” Read the full statement at: https://bit.ly/3jLn0kA
Congress must pass essential housing and homelessness protections in the HEROES Act – including NLIHC’s top priorities – a national, uniform moratorium on evictions to cover all renters; $100 billion in emergency rental assistance through the “Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act”; $11.5 billion to help address the health and housing needs of people experiencing homelessness; and $13 billion in additional resources to ensure housing stability.
The stakes could not be higher during this public health crisis: Every day of inaction puts more low-income seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, and others at immediate risk of losing their homes. Ensuring that everyone is stably housed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic is not only a moral imperative – it is a public health necessity.
There is broad support for emergency housing resources in the HEROES Act. More than 950 organizations signed onto a letter supporting the “Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act” included the HEROES Act. Nearly 750 organizations signed onto a letter supporting the full scope of housing provisions in the HEROES Act. Add your organization onto these letters here.
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