NLIHC’s annual Housing Leadership Awards Reception taking place in Washington DC on March 20, 2018, will recognize the 2018 Housing Leadership Award honorees Matt Desmond, MacArthur Genius awardee and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City; Lisa Hasegawa, former executive director of the National Coalition for Asian and Pacific American Community Development (CAPACD) and NLIHC board member; and U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). Make a donation in their honor and/or register to attend the event today.
Dr. Desmond will receive the Sheila Crowley Housing Justice Award in 2018 for his groundbreaking work to elevate the need for affordable housing for the lowest income people in America. In the book Evicted, Dr. Desmond brings readers into the lives of eight families struggling to get by in the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee, and demonstrates how, in Dr. Desmond’s words, “eviction is a cause, not just a condition, of poverty.” Through this book and others, his articles in major news publications and journals, and public appearances around the country, Dr. Desmond has heightened public and policy-maker awareness about issues of racial, social, and housing justice and called for bold solutions.
Ms. Hasegawa will receive the 2018 Cushing Niles Dolbeare Lifetime Service Award for her years of dedication to affordable housing on behalf of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. As the executive director of National CAPACD for 15 years, Ms. Hasegawa led national efforts to meet the affordable housing and community development needs of AAPI communities. Prior to National CAPACD, she was the Community Liaison of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans Pacific Islanders at the end of the Clinton administration. In 2017 Ms. Hasegawa was named the UCLA Asian American Studies Center (AASC) Activist Fellow, and she currently serves as the UCLA assistant director of federal relations. For her entire career, Ms. Hasegawa has worked at the intersections of civil and human rights, affordable housing, health, and community development and organizing.
Senator Collins will receive the 2018 Edward W. Brooke Housing Leadership Award for her years of strong support in the Senate for federal affordable housing and homelessness programs. As the chair of the Transportation/HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, the senator has been a bulwark opposing proposed cuts to critical HUD programs year after year. Ms. Collins was one of the first co-sponsors of the bill that created and funded the national Housing Trust Fund; she has been a vocal supporter of the Housing First model for addressing homelessness; and she was instrumental in getting key provisions into the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA) to strengthen the voucher program to serve more very low income people. She has opposed attempts to eliminate the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, protected the Housing Trust Fund from attacks, and introduced and shepherded legislation to address opposition to HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule.
Please make a Leadership Award Reception sponsorship donation honoring these leaders and supporting NLIHC’s mission of promoting socially just public policy to ensure the lowest income people in America have decent, affordable homes. To register for the 2018 Leadership Reception at which Dr. Desmond, Ms. Hasegawa, and Ms. Collins will be recognized, contact Christina Sin at csin@nlihc.org or register online (a separate ticket from the NLIHC Housing Policy Forum, taking place the same week, is required to attend the reception).