NLIHC is re-invigorating the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) campaign to bolster support for this first federal resource in a generation dedicated to building and preserving homes for the lowest income people. The relaunch of this campaign already has over 1,600 organizations that have signed on in support. Check to see if your organization has signed on here. If it has not, endorse the campaign today!
There are new opportunities–and significant threats–for the HTF this year and next. Housing finance reform legislation could be taken up by a lame duck Congress this fall or by the new Congress in 2019. Current legislation does not meet the $3.5 billion threshold for HTF funding established in the bi-partisan Johnson-Crapo reform bill of 2014, and advocates need to work together to ensure any housing finance reform package provides at least this level of funding. In addition, President Trump may appoint a new Federal Housing Finance Agency director who could once again suspend the statutorily required contributions by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the HTF. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), on the other hand, has proposed a bold expansion of funding to the HTF in her “American Housing and Economic Mobility Act,” which would allocate $44 billion each year to the HTF over ten years.
Early successes of the HTF have been detailed in NLIHC’s Getting Started: First Homes Being Built with 2016 National Housing Trust Fund Awards report, which profiles the almost 1,500 rental homes – prioritized for seniors, people with disabilities, the homeless, and those at risk of homelessness - being created in 42 states with the first allocations of HTF dollars. The construction of homes highlighted in the Getting Started report is just the beginning. So much more must be done through additional investments in the HTF.
If you are in the Washington, DC metropolitan area on October 29, be sure to attend NLIHC’s “Bold Housing Solutions: Opportunities to Expand the National Housing Trust Fund” Congressional briefing from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET. This is a free event designed to share findings from the Getting Started report and discuss how initial HTF investments are benefiting local communities.
Show your support for the HTF by signing onto the campaign at: https://bit.ly/2I6pffL
Register to attend the October 29 Congressional briefing at: https://bit.ly/2RGwmzP