Housing Funding is at Risk of “The Chop”
Congress Must Hear Us TODAY
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You can’t afford to skip federal advocacy work today. If we don’t act now, we may miss our opportunity to secure historic levels of funding for housing in the reconciliation bill. In the next 1-3 days, please take 15 minutes to tell Congress that housing needs a maximum allocation in the Build Back Better Act/reconciliation bill. Don’t let housing get chopped!
We all heard the good news that the House Financial Services Committee passed $327 billion for housing in their reconciliation bill text. This included a historic $500 million set-aside for CLTs and shared equity homeownership and tens of billions of dollars in other resources that our members could access to create and preserve housing with lasting affordability.
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The bad news is that the House and Senate leadership are negotiating behind the scenes and anticipate major cuts to the overall reconciliation bill amount in order to get the narrow-margin votes they need for the bill to pass along with the already-negotiated bipartisan infrastructure bill. Congress is communicating that housing is on the chopping block, at least in part, because they aren’t hearing from housing providers and advocates as loudly as others in education, health, and sustainability sectors. DO YOUR PART TODAY.
Contact your Representative and Senators’ offices today and communicate the following:
Dear Senator/Representative [NAME],
Congress has the opportunity to make a historic investment in affordable housing by keeping funding at the proposed $327 billion level in the Build Back Better Act. Housing is infrastructure. Housing is healthcare. Housing is jobs. Housing is opportunity. Housing is racial justice. As your constituent, I implore you to please ensure that affordable housing maintains this robust funding in the reconciliation bill.
OPTIONAL/CUSTOMIZABLE PARAGRAPH: My organization, [ORG NAME], is a [nonprofit/community land trust] that creates permanently affordable housing opportunities through shared equity homeownership. This innovative model uses a one-time public investment to create homeownership opportunities for lower income people and people of color, and the homes remain affordable permanently for every subsequent lower income household who owns these homes. The result is that families— who would otherwise be renters—are able to build wealth from homeownership while quality affordable homes continue to serve others in the community in the future.
In particular, I ask you to protect the following parts of the housing provisions in the reconciliation bill, which will greatly expand the impact of community land trusts and shared equity homeownership for lower income people and people of color:
- $7.5 billion for the Community Restoration & Revitalization Fund, including the $500 million set aside for community land trusts and shared equity homeownership.
- $10 billion for First Generation Down Payment Assistance.
- $35 billion for HOME Investment Partnership program.
- $10 billion for the Housing Investment Fund.
Don’t wait. Call and send emails today. The time to push for resources is now.
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In solidarity,
Emily Thaden
VP of National Strategy
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Grounded Solutions Network advocates on behalf of our members on national, state, and local policy issues. Staff represents our members in federal policy coalitions and campaigns that include advocacy for affordable housing and community development funding, the HOME program, tax credits, fair housing and fair lending, disaster recovery programs, and opportunity zones. We submit public comments and sign-on letters and meet with members of Congress to advance the field.
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Where we live matters.
We bring together an extensive network of partners and member practitioners from local communities who have a deep understanding of best practices in community land trusts, shared equity housing, local housing policies such as inclusionary zoning, and more.
At Grounded Solutions Network, we know what policies and strategies work to build and preserve housing opportunities, and we help communities use them.
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