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The Senate and House have approved budget resolutions that set the stage for a $3.5 trillion infrastructure and economic recovery package. The House budget resolution includes investments up to $339 billion for affordable housing. The Senate budget resolution includes up to $332 billion for affordable housing.
Urge your members of Congress to support affordable housing priorities by using $339 billion to meet crucial housing needs for affordable rental housing and affordable homeownership.
Please join us in asking federal legislators from Illinois to support:
Creating and preserving affordable rental homes for people with the lowest incomes, especially by expanding rental assistance provided through Housing Choice Vouchers with $180 billion phased in over ten years to assist an additional 2.65 million struggling households afford rent—all households with incomes below 15% of Area Median Income (AMI) and households receiving Supplemental Security Income with incomes below 30% of AMI; providing $70 billion for public housing’s deferred infrastructure projects; and providing $45 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) to build new rental housing.
Addressing the racial wealth gap by providing targeted down payment assistance that will bring homeownership within reach for those who have been historically left out of a key means of building household and intergenerational wealth.
Supporting community investment, revitalization, and equity through initiatives such as establishing the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act and providing incentives for communities to eliminate exclusionary zoning policies.
Providing decent, affordable, stable housing is a human capital investment, much like education or job training. When people live in homes that are affordable, they can spend more of their income on other essential needs, benefiting themselves and the entire local economy. Moreover, investing in housing creates construction jobs and economic growth through the sale of building materials.
Work is being done in House and Senate committees to finalize bill language. The first votes may be as soon as September 13, so please contact your legislators today.
Copy and paste any of the suggestions below into the sample email to the right to bring attention to the issue that has the most meaning for you.
Affordable Rental Housing
There are only 39 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households in Illinois. Statewide, the overall shortage of affordable and available units for extremely low-income households is 268,089. Across Illinois, most waiting lists for Housing Choice Vouchers are closed. For those fortunate to be on a waiting list, the wait to secure a voucher can be years or decades long.
Affordable Homeownership
Homeownership can be a powerful way to build wealth. When affordable, a home can offer families stability and be a valuable asset to pass on to future generations. For people who have faced systemic obstacles to homeownership, primarily people who are Black, owning a home can help build generational wealth and narrow the racial wealth gap. In Illinois, 65.3% of households are homeowners, but they are 1.6 times more likely to be white than a person of color.
Equitable Neighborhood Investment
Eliminating prohibitive zoning that discourages affordable housing development will provide more options for people with lower incomes to secure affordable rental housing and affordable homeownership. We are advocating that the infrastructure bill include funding for a new initiative, originally proposed by President Biden, to award funding to local governments that take concrete steps to eliminate needless barriers to produce affordable housing and expand housing choices for people with low or moderate incomes.
Neighborhood Homes Investment Act
The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act calls for the creation of a new federal tax credit that will produce new equity investment dollars for the development and renovation of 1-4 unit family housing in distressed urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods. The tax credit will fill the “value gap” when the cost of rehabilitating or building a home is greater than the post-construction value of the home.
Affordable Housing Creates Opportunity for Young Children
When a family’s housing situation is unaffordable and unstable, chances to lead a healthy life dwindle rapidly.
Quality affordable housing can be a “vaccine” which prevents long-term health problems and promotes healthy, productive lives.
Young children who move frequently are at increased risk of adverse health conditions: including developmental delays, behavioral problems, poor mental health, and delays in school readiness.
Unaffordable and unstable housing increases healthcare costs, particularly emergency hospital visits and asthma hospitalizations.
Affordable Housing Creates Opportunity for People with Disabilities
Increasing the amount of rental subsidies available is key for housing for people with disabilities.
A person with a disability receives SSI benefits of $794 per month. Renting the average studio or one-bedroom apartment costs more than that entire monthly income.
Only one in four households that qualify for housing assistance receives it due to decades of chronic underfunding by Congress.
Millions of eligible households are on waiting lists—often for several years—waiting for help.
Affordable Housing Creates Opportunity for Refugees
Access to decent, stable, affordable housing for refugees can improve outcomes for adults and children for health, education, and economic stability.
According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement Annual Survey of Refugees 2017, only 14% of respondents were receiving housing assistance four to six years after arrival, but still 74% reported being renters.
The expansion of affordable rental housing is key to refugee success, particularly housing that is not only affordable but adequate to the task of housing larger families.
Refugees were particularly hard hit during the pandemic; many work in the service industry and have experienced job instability and loss.
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