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Independent Living News & Policy from the National Council on Independent Living

Use NLIHC Report as Tool for Advocacy!

The National Low Income Housing Coalition has released a report, Getting Started: First Homes Being Built with 2016 National Housing Trust Fund Awards (PDF). As many of you know, the National Housing Trust Fund was first created in 2008, but not funded until 2016. It is a program that provides “new money” to affordable housing, and unique because it focuses most of the money on Extremely Low Income households, those at or below 30% of Area Median Income, and those who rent. $174 million was allocated to states and territories in 2016, and the fruits of that allocation are finally showing in many states. Despite the funding being released in 2016, many states are lagging because they were not ready to move.

equal housing opportunity symbolThis report is an opportunity for advocates to see what is happening elsewhere, to compare how your state is doing. For example, 24 states specifically included people with disabilities as a beneficiary of the trust fund, with 5 states choosing to focus exclusively on housing people with disabilities. Some states chose to spread out the money with other funding sources such as Low Income Housing Tax Credits, while others chose to focus their money on fewer units for more deep subsidies.

Take this opportunity to look at where the housing trust fund money is being spent in your state – are you happy with their priorities? NLIHC is a great resource on this. 

Questions to ask yourself:

  • What are my state’s priorities for the Housing Trust Fund monies?
  • Will that list of priorities help people with disabilities in the state?
  • Do the priorities match what I am seeing in the community?
  • What do I want to see instead?