Don’t forget that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will join our next national call on Coronavirus, Housing, and Homelessness on Monday, June 8, 2:30-4 pm ET! This is our opportunity to thank Minority Leader Schumer for securing $12 billion in housing resources in the CARES Act and for his support for housing and homelessness resources in the next coronavirus package. We will also discuss “Addressing Anti-Blackness, Achieving Racial Equity,” hear updates from the field, and more. We hope you join us! Register for the call here: https://tinyurl.com/ru73qan.
Use the #RentReliefNow Media Toolkit to raise awareness around the need to include critical housing and homelessness resources in the next coronavirus relief package. The toolkit contains sample social media posts, images, and an Op-Ed template.
Please also consider adding your organization totwo sign on letters urging Congress to immediately enact critical housing investments and protections!
Additional updates below. Coronavirus Update, Friday, June 5, 2020
NLIHC is maintaining a COVID-19/Housing and Homelessness News and Resource page here.
NLIHC’s “Getting to Yes: Working with FEMA to Fund Non-Congregate Shelter During COVID-19” has been updated.
National Updates
Congress
Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Mike Levin (D-CA) and Senators Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) introduced the “Homeless Veteran Coronavirus Response Act” (H.R. 2223, S. 3898) on June 4, which would provide the Department of Veterans Affairs with flexibility to care for veterans experiencing homelessness during the pandemic.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) spoke at a virtual roundtable hosted by the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, an NLIHC state partner, to discuss the “Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stability Act.”
Department of Housing and Urban Development
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced on June 4, a new, temporary policy that provides guidance for lenders to obtain FHA insurance endorsement on mortgages where the borrower has requested or obtained a COVID-19 forbearance.
FEMA
FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor spoke with The Weather Channel on June 3 about the active start to the hurricane season and discussed the agency’s actions in preparing for the hurricane season on top of COVID-19 response actions.
Advocacy
The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition will continue to push for a broad array of resources and protections, including emergency rental assistance and eviction prevention assistance, a national moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, and emergency funds for homelessness service providers, housing authorities, and housing providers, among other recommendations. For more information, see DHRC’s full list of recommendations.
Reporting
An article in Forbes discussing housing inequality and racism in the United States quoted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comments during NLIHC’s national call on June 2. “Housing security is a matter of justice, as structural racism puts communities of color unfairly at risk of being rent burdened or homeless,” said Speaker Pelosi. The piece outlines a brief history of racial discrimination in U.S. housing policies.
Yahoo! News examines how the coronavirus pandemic highlights housing inequality faced by Black Americans. Black communities are disproportionately impacted by the virus itself and by the economic fallout, and job losses from COVID-19 risk exacerbating housing inequities.
An article in the Nation discusses how cities across the county have established rental assistance programs using a mix of federal, state, and local funding, and in nearly every instance, the need for assistance has significantly overwhelmed the supply. The article discusses the $100 billion in emergency rental assistance included in the HEROES Act.
A piece in Quartz discusses how COVID-19 has upended Florida’s long and slow recovery from the 2018 hurricane season. The article examines how Bay County’s recovery from Hurricane Michael demonstrates how natural disasters often leave low-income communities exposed to a range of compounding impacts.
State and Local News
A list of state and local emergency rental assistance programs is available here from NLIHC.
Alaska
The Ben Boeke Ice Arena in Anchorage, which has been serving as an emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness amid the pandemic, closed on June 1. The Dempsey-Anderson Arena, which was converted to an isolation and quarantine facility for people experiencing homelessness, was also demobilized on June 1.
Arizona
The Tucson City Council approved a plan to distribute $95.7 million in federal CARES Act funding, including $5 million for utility, rent, and mortgage assistance. The city also approved $5 million in federal funding for isolation and quarantine housing for people experiencing homelessness and installing wash stations and portable toilets.
California
An article in the Los Angeles Times discusses how the curfews put in place due to the protests over police brutality have created additional challenges for people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. Although Los Angeles County’s notice exempted people experiencing homelessness from the curfew, alerts about the curfews provided contradictory and confusing information.
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) will offer free COVID-19 testing to people experiencing homelessness in southeast San Francisco. The effort is part of UCSF’s collaboration with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the state of California, and impacted communities. Organizers hope to test 1,000 people over two days.
The Gospel Center Rescue Mission has quickly transformed a home in Stockton that was originally purchased as additional housing for people experiencing homelessness into an eight-bed, temporary facility for men experiencing homelessness who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The North Westwood Neighborhood Council urged the city and state to increase efforts to shelter people experiencing homelessness in hotels and motels. The council believes that Project Roomkey is moving too slowly, and that Los Angeles should take steps to expedite the room-securing process.
Colorado
Cathy Alderman of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, an NLIHC state partner, wrote a Letter to the Editor in the Sentinel Colorado, urging Congress to provide emergency rental assistance to keep Coloradans safe and stably housed.
While every state in the Mountain West has some type of rental assistance program in place, housing advocates hope that these programs receive funding to keep up with the ongoing need. Rental assistance is needed to keep people stably housed amid the economic fallout of COVID-19.
Indiana
An editorial in the Journal Gazette calls on Indiana officials to establish a statewide rental assistance program using a portion of the $2.4 billion in federal Coronavirus Relief Fund dollars. Fort Wayne invested $150,000 from its CARES Act allocation to launch the Tenant Assistance Legal Clinic to help prevent evictions. The city also has a $200,000 rental assistance fund.
Kentucky
Louisville, Lexington, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky will receive more than $23 million in Emergency Solutions Grants - Coronavirus (ESG-CV). “We commend Congress’ allocation of COVID-19 resources from the CARES Act to support people experiencing homelessness with shelter, prevent families from losing their homes to eviction, front-end rental assistance,” said Adrienne Bush, executive director of the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, an NLIHC state partner.
Louisiana
The Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center has COVID-19 housing resources translated into English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Representative Garret Graves (R-LA) announced that Baton Rouge will receive $1.65 million in Emergency Solutions Grants - Coronavirus (ESG-CV) funding to support people experiencing homelessness. Louisiana received nearly $21 million in ESG-CV funding.
The City of Monroe allocated approximately $436,000 in Community Development Block Grant - Coronavirus (CDBG-CV) funding to a small business assistance program and an emergency rental/mortgage assistance program. The city has received over 100 requests for small business assistance and over 450 applications for rental and mortgage assistance. The director of Monroe’s Planning and Urban Development said that if the HEROES Act is passed, the city may receive additional funds that would allow it to reopen the assistance programs.
St. Louis County is making available an additional $5 million in federal CARES Act funding to provide rental assistance, mortgage assistance, and support to people experiencing homelessness.
Nevada
Las Vegas advocates are concerned that COVID-19 has had a significant impact on an important piece of Nevada legislation that would have secured millions of dollars to fight homelessness.
North Dakota
The YWCA Cass Clay began weekly mass testing of residents and staff at the Emergency Shelter on June 4, and it will continue to do so each week for the foreseeable future. The YWCA Emergency Shelter is the largest shelter serving women and children in North Dakota and northwest Minnesota.
Pennsylvania
The Philadelphia City Council held its first public hearing on the “Emergency Housing Protection Act'' (EHPA) on May 29 and will hold an additional public hearing session on June 5. The EHPA is a combination of six bills and one resolution to protect renters from losing their homes as a result of COVID-19. The Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development, and Homelessness will also vote on presenting the package to City Council at-large.
Texas
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) announced that the city of Lubbock will receive $1.38 million in Emergency Solution Grants - Coronavirus (ESG-CV) funding. The funds will support additional homeless assistance and homelessness prevention activities. San Antonio and Bexar County will receive a total of $14.8 million in ESG-CV funding.
Washington
Governor Jay Inslee announced on June 4 that Washington has enough COVID-19 tests to expand testing to new populations, including those living in congregate settings, such as agricultural sites, long-term care facilities, low-income housing, and homeless shelters.
West Virginia
Advocates in West Virginia believe that COVID-19 has brought communities together to address housing instability and homelessness. The West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, an NLIHC state partner, has focused on meeting the immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness amid the pandemic and on the longer-term solutions that have been in place long before COVID-19.
West Virginia will be awarded $7.1 million in Emergency Solutions Grants - Coronavirus (ESG-CV) to prepare and respond to COVID-19 among individuals experiencing homelessness. The city of Huntington will also receive $559,361 in ESG-CV funds.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes.
DISASTER HOUSING RECOVERY COALITION, C/O NATIONAL LOW INCOME HOUSING COALITION
1000 Vermont Avenue, NW | Suite 500 | Washington, DC 20005 | 202-662-1530 | www.nlihc.org
