Dissecting the American Housing Crisis with Andrew Aurand and Courtney Cooperman

In this episode, Sarah sits down with Andrew Aurand, Senior VP of Research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition and Courtney Cooperman, Housing Advocacy Organizer at the National Low Income Housing Coalition to discuss the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s work and advocacy in the affordable housing space, as well as solutions being implemented to increase the stock of new affordable housing in the United States.

Transcript

Courtney Cooperman(00:00
): 

Our role is to keep advocates across the country informed about what’s happening in federal policy, and empower them with the tools and resources to advocate effectively.

Andrew Aurand (00:10)
: 

There is no automatic renewal mechanism [for the LIHTC program]. There’s no mechanism in place to try to ensure that those properties are insured. So that’s a much bigger question mark.

Courtney Cooperman (00:20)
: 

We do know that in a divided Congress, it can be an uphill battle to getting legislation across the finish line. But every person that makes their voice heard and expresses their support for these priorities matters and builds the momentum and makes these solutions more within political reach.



Sarah Johnson (00:38): 

Welcome to the Pathway Podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Johnson, and thank you for joining us for this episode. Pathway to Tomorrow is a nonprofit with initiatives in housing, environmental conservation and water security. In this podcast series, we engage with leaders working on solving some of the world’s most challenging problems by exploring innovative solutions being implemented by leading NGOs, nonprofits, think tanks, companies and institutions focused on issues like homelessness, environmental conservation, climate change, and water security. 

(01:18):

Our guests today are Andrew Aurand, senior vice president for research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and Courtney Cooperman, housing advocacy organizer at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Andrew has served as a faculty member in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University and was a postdoctoral research associate at the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University. Today, Andrew leads the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s research team in documenting the housing needs of low income renters, conducting research that informs policy related to affordable rental housing for extremely low income renters, and also co-managing the coalition’s national housing preservation database. Andrew holds a master’s degree in social Work and a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Pittsburgh. 

(02:00):

As a housing advocacy organizer at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Courtney mobilizes coalition members and partners to advocate for the coalition’s federal policy priorities. She also coordinates the coalition’s nonpartisan Our Homes, Our Votes campaign, which aims to boost voter turnout among low income renters and educate candidates about housing solutions. Prior to joining the coalition, Courtney was an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), the social justice arm of the Reformed Jewish Movement, with a policy portfolio that included housing, nutrition, labor, and other economic justice issues. 

(02:35):

Courtney spearheaded The RAC’s advocacy on COVID-19 relief and recovery legislation. Courtney holds a bachelor’s in political science from Stanford University, where she completed an honors thesis on the relationship between homelessness and political participation. 

(02:48):

Andrew and Courtney, it’s such a pleasure to have you on today. Thank you so much for joining us.

Andrew Aurand (02:51
): 

Thanks for having us.

Courtney Cooperman 1(02:53)
: 

Thank you. Great to be here.


Sarah Johnson (02:55): 

So to start us off, can you give us an overview of the National Income Housing Coalition’s work and its advocacy in the affordable housing space?


Courtney Cooperman (03:03): 

Sure. I’ll get us started. The National Low Income Housing Coalition, or NLIHC, is a federal policy, advocacy and research organization based in Washington, DC. Our mission is to achieve racially and socially equitable public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes have quality homes that are accessible and affordable in communities of their choice. We produce research that illustrates the state of housing affordability in the US. We educate the public and policymakers about our findings, and we mobilize our nationwide network to advocate for affordable homes. 

(03:42):

Something that makes us unique in the policy and advocacy space in D.C. is our focus on the lowest income renters, those making at or below 30% of area median income. That focus is rooted in the findings of our research, which I know that Andrew will discuss further. Our advocacy is driven by our network of thousands of NLIHC members and partners all across the country. A lot of people who at the state or local level, don’t necessarily have the time or resources to analyze the federal budget or track what’s happening in Congress on a daily basis, but they’re affected by the decisions that Congress makes, and their ability to achieve their missions is dependent on the federal government stepping up and recognizing its own responsibility to address the housing and homelessness crisis. And that’s where we come in. 

(04:36):

Our role is to keep advocates across the country informed about what’s happening in federal policy, and empower them with the tools and resources to advocate effectively. And that’s really where the power of our advocacy comes from. It comes from this broad coalition of constituents, ranging from direct service providers to affordable housing developers to tenant leaders. 

(5:00):

We empower these constituents to build relationships with their elected officials and advocate for federal housing solutions that meet the scale of the need. This advocacy has achieved some major victories in federal policy, including the passage of a historic $46 billion in emergency rental assistance in COVID-19 relief and recovery legislation. This victory wouldn’t have been possible without the coalition building, the educating of policymakers, and mobilizing advocates that are deeply committed to ending homelessness and housing poverty in their communities and in the country as a whole.


Sarah Johnson (05:38): 

Thank you so much for sharing that, Courtney. Can either you or Andrew speak to conversations that are happening now with regard to the preservation of existing affordable housing?

Andrew Aurand (05:48):
 

Sure. Yeah. I think now, I would say there’s been growing concern and discussion around the preservation of low income housing tax credit properties. The program being, you know, one of the largest federal programs for affordable rental housing in the country. And the federally required affordability period is 30 years, which, given the age of the program, more and more properties are reaching that 30 year mark. And of course, now, you know, some states have longer affordability periods, but not when the program was first implemented, like in the late 1980s, early 1990s when the program really got underway. 

(06:27)

And here we are 30 years later, and a lot of properties are starting to come up against their affordability –  the ending of their affordability restrictions. So there’s been a lot of discussion about what will happen to those properties. And, you know, particularly their affordability. And there’s different potential outcomes, many different scenarios. And we’re concerned about all of them. You know, one of them being in some markets, of course, rents are going to rise in some of those properties. In other markets the concern isn’t so much affordability – you know, when the restrictions end, rents will likely not rise that much above the current LIHTC  rent restrictions. But in those situations, the question of quality is still a big concern. 

(07:09):

How do you, in the long run, maintain affordable rents and at the same time maintain good quality of the property and upgrade systems when we know they need to be upgraded? And then another concern is, you know, what happens to the lowest income renters in these properties, some of them who hold vouchers, you know, once restrictions expire, landlords aren’t required then to accept vouchers, while landlords continue to accept vouchers in these properties. And for renters – the lowest income renters without vouchers – will they be able to afford even modest increases in rent? So those are the main concerns we have regarding this growing number of properties that are losing their affordability restrictions in the tax credit program.

Sarah Johnson (07:50
): 

Right. And this was actually my next question for you. What are the implications of that looming problem – that a lot of affordability covenants are expiring across the country right now?

Andrew Aurand (07:59
): 

Yeah, I think one is,  we have to think about – how do we maintain the quality of these properties and at the same time ensure that they maintain affordable rents, you know? So that will take more investment. You know, another concern we have, like I was saying, is what happens with the lowest income renters, particularly those who don’t have other forms of rental assistance like housing choice vouchers. A report was released last year from Freddie Mac that indicated, their report looked at tax credit properties that had ended their affordability restrictions, they had expired. And they found that on average, rents did not increase all that much. They increased a little bit. 

(08:43):

But they pointed out that for units whose restrictions were at 30% of AMI,  so, you know, they were serving extremely low income renters – those are the units, not surprisingly, that saw the biggest rent increases. And so the units where you can see the biggest rent increases are the same units that are housing people who really have the hardest time affording those increases. And we’re really concerned about that, you know, in terms of numbers of all federally assisted units – that would be LIHTC units, that would be project based rental assistance units, over the next five years, we estimate about 300,000 will, for one reason or another, see the end of their current restrictions. Many of those, though, will be renewed. A lot of them are project based rental assistance contracts that will be renewed. 

(09:25):

But, you know, the LIHTC program, there really is no automatic renewal mechanism. There’s no mechanism in place to try to ensure that those properties are insured. So that’s a much bigger question mark. You know, based on history, we could lose up to like half of the units. And so that’s a big concern, you know, just adds to this huge shortage that we already have of affordable rental housing for the lowest income renters. It just exacerbates that shortage.

Sarah Johnson (09:50
): 

So Andrew, what solutions are you seeing being implemented by the private sector, cities and the federal government to increase the stock of new affordable housing?

Andrew Aurand (09:59
): 

Yeah, that’s a great question. You know, there’s really an important role that is happening among a variety of stakeholders. The general supply of rental housing definitely needs to increase in a number of markets, particularly in really tight markets like with low vacancy rates. And so, you know, if you think of like markets like Los Angeles or in the Bay area and a lot of other coastal markets, you know, the private sector can and is increasing the general supply of rental housing, where jurisdictions are allowing that to happen. You know, jurisdictions that aren’t implementing great restrictions on the production of rental housing that is happening. 

(10:36):

You know, we also see social impact investment going towards the production and preservation of rental housing that’s affordable but tends to be affordable or priced in a range for households whose income is, say, between like half to 80% of area median income. So like low income, but not really for housing that rents for households that would be affordable for extremely low income households whose incomes are below poverty. And so there we really need efforts by government, federal, state and local governments.

Sarah Johnson (11:09
):

Thank you for sharing that, Andrew. So my next question is for Courtney. Courtney, can you tell us more about the immediate priorities of the coalition’s advocacy campaigns in the current Congress?

Courtney Cooperman (11:20
): 

Yes, absolutely. So our HoUSed campaign for universal, stable, affordable homes is our overarching federal policy campaign to advance anti-racist policies and achieve the large scale, sustained investments and reforms necessary to ensure that renters with the lowest incomes have an affordable place to call home. Too often, and I’m not gonna lie, we definitely find ourselves in this situation a little bit right now. But too often, housing advocates find ourselves on the defensive, pushing back against proposed cuts to programs that serve the lowest income people.

(11:59):

The HoUSed campaign is our bold, proactive vision for a housing policy agenda that makes investments at the scale needed. The HoUSed campaign has four pillars. The first is to bridge the gap between incomes and housing costs by expanding rental assistance to every eligible household. The second is to expand and preserve the supply of rental homes that are affordable and accessible to people with the lowest incomes. The third is to provide emergency rental assistance to households in crisis by creating a National Housing Stabilization Fund. And the fourth is to strengthen and enforce renter protections to reduce the power imbalance between renters and landlords that puts renters at risk of housing instability and homelessness. 

(12:48):

We’re always advocating for our priority legislation that falls within these pillars. Many of the bills within the HoUSed campaign have bipartisan support, and we’re always looking to bring more co-sponsors onto them. We do know that in a divided Congress, it can be an uphill battle to getting legislation across the finish line, but every person that makes their voice heard and expresses their support for these priorities matters and builds the momentum and makes these solutions more within political reach. So you can learn more about the HoUSed campaign at NLIHC.org/housed. 

(13:25):

We also make it really quick and easy to make your voice heard on these priorities. We have a legislative action center online that includes fillable templates, so you can send messages directly to your members of Congress on our priority bills. The basic information about the bill and what we’re asking Congress to do is filled in already for you, as well as your members’ contacts. And then you just have to add a few sentences about why this housing solution matters to you and your community. You can find that all online on the Legislative Action Center at NLIHC.org/take-action. 

(14:04):

I’ll also say that while we’re advocating for the HoUSed campaign’s long term solutions, we are also pushing for immediate investments to keep federal housing programs funded at the scale needed for the upcoming fiscal year. With a lot of uncertainty in Congress right now following the removal of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it is really critical for housing advocates to weigh in on the annual appropriations process. Funding for domestic discretionary programs, which includes housing, has been at risk all year due to the demands of far right members of the House of Representatives to slash spending. Housing advocates have weighed in throughout this appropriations process and kind of minimized the damage, securing even proposals to even increase resources for HUD. 

(14:53):

So no matter what’s happening, kind of with the day to day political news in the House, it’s really critical for housing advocates to continue to weigh in and emphasize that housing programs can’t be on the chopping block in further negotiations happening over the budget. Even just flat funding for housing programs effectively acts as a cut because inflation raises the cost of rent, and programs need more funding just to keep up. So in the budget cycle, every year and this year, of course, we’re advocating for maximum possible resources for housing and homelessness programs, especially investments that serve people with the greatest needs – that includes public housing, homeless assistance grants, legal assistance to prevent evictions, and increased funding for native housing, just to name a few that we’re pulling out. 

(15:46):

So again, you can send a message to your members of Congress at NLIHC.org/take-action to support those priorities. I also want to emphasize that the work that we do goes beyond legislative advocacy. We know that the lack of investments in affordable homes for the lowest income people is ultimately a matter of political will. And to build that political will, we need to show elected officials that low income renters are a powerful voting bloc that can hold legislators accountable to prioritize communities with the greatest needs. But achieving that political will is a challenge, because renters turn out to vote at lower rates than homeowners, and low-income people turn out to vote at lower rates than high income people. 

(16:35):

That’s why we launched the Our Homes, Our Votes campaign, which is a nonpartisan initiative to boost voter turnout among low income renters and educate candidates about housing solutions. The campaign provides tools and resources that empower the housing and homelessness field to register, educate and mobilize voters in their communities with the ultimate goal of closing that voter turnout gap. You can learn more and get involved at ourhomes-ourvotes.org .  And we also recognize that housing advocates can’t do it alone. And housing justice intersects with so many other urgent priorities. 

(17:13):

The Opportunity Starts at Home Campaign is our multi-sector, affordable housing campaign that brings together advocates from all spheres – environmental, health, nutrition, child welfare, from faith communities and many more. And it brings together these advocates from different sectors to push for long- term housing policy solutions. Advocates in these sectors recognize that affordable housing is foundational to all other aspects of life, and it’s deeply intertwined with their own missions. And finally, we know that our work can only be successful when it’s driven by the leadership of renters and people who have experienced homelessness. They are the ones who can directly attest to the experience of housing insecurity and have the best understanding of what solutions are needed. 

(18:04):

We always prioritize tenant input into our policy agenda and empower tenants to lead in our advocacy work. One way in which that takes place is through our Tenant Leader Collective, which is a cohort of tenant leaders from across the country who work towards housing justice and racial equity in their neighborhoods and greater communities. Last year, tenant leaders in the cohort met with senior white House leaders to inform federal action on tenant protections, which ultimately shaped the White House’s blueprint for a Renter’s Bill of rights. Members of the cohort also facilitated a fireside chat with Secretary Marcia Fudge at our annual Housing Policy Forum last March. 

(18:46):

You can learn more about all of this work, all of these campaigns and initiatives, and our top priority legislation on our website, NLIHC.org. And I highly recommend subscribing to our email list to keep up with the latest. We’ll always inform you what’s happening week to week on Capitol Hill and how you can get involved and make your voice heard.

Sarah Johnson (19:07
): 

Thank you so much for sharing that, Courtney. So many important, critical advocacy campaigns that the coalition is involved in that you’re leading. Thank you for this work. My next question for you is, what are some of the longer term priorities of the coalition’s advocacy and power building efforts?


Courtney Cooperman (19:23): 

Some of our longer term priorities, as I highlighted with the HoUSed campaign, we’re really looking to build the political will for these solutions. So we know that it’s going to take more than just the day to day of what’s on the table right now. It’s going to take things that feel like they are perhaps a little bit further out of reach, things that don’t feel like they’re within the current political landscape. So a lot of that involves the Our Homes Our Votes Campaign and building that political will, closing the voter turnout gap.

Sarah Johnson (19:54
): 

Alright. Well, thank you so much again for joining us today, Andrew and Courtney. It’s been a pleasure to learn more about your work and get your insights on the state of affordable housing and what solutions we can look forward to hearing more about, as well as how our listeners can get involved. 

(20:07):

To our listeners, thank you for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe to the Pathway Podcast to get alerts on new episodes featuring thought leaders working in housing, environmental conservation, climate change and water security.