Advocates showed up strong for NLIHC’s “Spring into Action” campaign between May 8-19, engaging their members of Congress about the importance of funding vital housing and homelessness programs. The two-week effort, which coincided with a key period for negotiations over the debt ceiling and the FY24 budget, mobilized advocates to oppose deep budget cuts and push Congress to invest in affordable housing and homelessness programs at the scale needed. Thank you to all the NLIHC members and partners who joined us in this mobilization.
To demonstrate the collective power of our network, advocates used the hashtags #CutsHurt and #SpringIntoAction when posting. Some advocates took creative approaches and conveyed the need for housing resources by creating visual art pieces, writing short poems, and highlighting data showing the impact of proposed cuts. For some examples of “Spring into Action” Instagram posts, see here, here, and here. For some examples of tweets, see here, here, and here. For some examples of Facebook posts, see here, here, and here. Search the hashtags #CutsHurt and #SpringIntoAction on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for more examples.
Although the two-week “Spring into Action” campaign concluded last week (Friday, May 19), it is still critical for advocates to reach out to their members of Congress and urge them to oppose harmful spending cuts. Advocates should schedule in-district meetings with their members of Congress and take the following actions:
Sign your organization on to the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding’s (CHCDF) annual budget letter, calling on Congress to reject spending cuts and instead provide the highest possible allocation for HUD’s and USDA’s affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs in FY24.
Email your members of Congress today and urge them to increase – not cut – resources for affordable housing and homelessness in FY24 and to support NLIHC’s top appropriations priorities:
$32.7 billion for the TBRA program to renew existing vouchers and to expand the program to an additional 200,000 households.
$5.4 billion for public housing operations and $5 billion for public housing repairs.
$3.8 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants program.
$100 million for legal assistance to prevent evictions.
$3 billion for a permanent Emergency Rental Assistance program.
$300 million for the competitive tribal housing grants, targeted to tribes with the greatest needs.
Check out NLIHC’s advocacy toolkit, “Oppose Dramatic Cuts to Federal Investments in Affordable Housing,” for talking points, sample social media messages, and more.
Thank you for your advocacy!