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Tell IL Members of Congress:
Any Reconciliation Bill Must Include Housing Investments

We must ensure that any scaled-down reconciliation package maintains investments in affordable housing.

After months of delays, the White House, congressional leaders, and key senators have restarted negotiations over a scaled-down reconciliation package that could include robust housing investments targeted to people with the lowest incomes.

These historic investments in affordable, accessible housing in the House-enacted bill are still desperately needed.

Please urge our members of Congress to include in any reconciliation package robust affordable housing investments targeted to those with the greatest needs in the next version of Build Back Better, including:

Creating and preserving affordable rental homes for people with the lowest incomes by providing $25 billion in rental assistance, $65 billion to preserve public housing and $15 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund. This funding would result in approximately 12,800 new housing vouchers for households in Illinois, including families with children, people with disabilities, and seniors. Illinois would also receive about $694 million for the Housing Trust Fund to create new rental homes that are affordable to extremely low-income households.
Closing the racial wealth gap with $10 billion in down payment assistance for first generation homebuyers, targeted to people who have been historically left out of a key means of building household and intergenerational wealth.
Providing incentives for community investment and equity through $1.75 billion for local governments to eliminate exclusionary zoning policies.
Establishing a Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit targeted to affordable homes for sale in communities where the cost of building or rehabilitating is greater than what people in the neighborhood can afford.
Improvement and expansion of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit to create and preserve affordable rental housing.

Other key funding priorities include:

Eliminating lead hazards to create healthy housing;
Green preservation of HUD multifamily housing;
Preserving rural housing;
Addressing health and safety concerns in HUD homes;
Section 202 Housing for the Elderly;
Fair housing activities; and
Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities.

Providing decent, affordable, stable housing is a human capital investment.

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.

Lift Up:

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 36 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households in Illinois. Statewide, there is an overall shortage of 288,917 affordable and available units for extremely low-income households. 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 for the infrastructure bill to 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.

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 to 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 health, education, and economic stability outcomes for adults and children.

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.

Please Personalize Your Comment

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Federal Legislators

Subject: Build Back Better with $150 Billion for Affordable Housing

Message:

As negotiations on the Build Back Better Act continue, I am writing to urge you to advocate to include $150 billion in funding for affordable housing, as well as tax credits to create affordable homes, in a scaled back version of the package. Our country has a historic opportunity to significantly reduce the shortage of affordable rental housing for people with the lowest incomes, expand homeownership opportunities in a way that will reduce the racial wealth gap, and incentivize the creation of affordable housing in both high-cost and low-cost communities. In particular, I want to express my strong support of five key solutions to America’s housing crisis: 1. Creating and preserving affordable rental homes for people with the lowest incomes by providing $25 billion in rental assistance, $65 billion to preserve public housing, and $15 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund. This funding would result in approximately 12,800 new housing vouchers for households in Illinois, including families with children, people with disabilities, and seniors. Illinois would also receive about $694 million for the Housing Trust Fund to create new rental homes that are affordable to extremely low-income households. 2. Closing the racial wealth gap with $10 billion in down payment assistance for first generation homebuyers, targeted to people who have been historically left out of a key means of building household and intergenerational wealth. 3. Providing incentives for community investment and equity through $1.75 billion for local governments to eliminate exclusionary zoning policies. 4. Establishing a Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit targeted to affordable homes for sale in communities where the cost of building or rehabilitating is greater than what people in the neighborhood can afford. 5. Improving and expanding the Low Income Housing Tax Credit to create and preserve affordable rental housing. Providing decent, affordable, stable housing is a human capital investment. 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. Thank you for your ongoing support for stabilizing our housing future by supporting these priorities in the infrastructure and economic recovery package.

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