Federal support for tenant organizing: PRRAC and the National Housing Law Project have advocated for increased support for tenant organizing in HUD-subsidized developments, and our latest policy brief urges HUD to expand this support to families participating in the Housing Choice Voucher program, our largest low-income housing program.
CRDC comments: We assisted the National Coalition on School Diversity in extensive comments on improving the Department of Education’s “Civil Rights Data Collection” to better align with one of its most important original functions, to assess the impacts of school segregation and to support school integration efforts. We also joined a broader set of comments submitted by the Leadership Conference.
Other news and resources:
Where are the assistant secretaries? HUD is missing key leadership, with appointees languishing in a divided Senate more than a year after the new administration came in. We recently joined a letter demanding action, and we hope readers of this update will also contact their Senators.
The Othering and Belonging Institute at UC-Berkeley just released a Structural Racism Remedies Repository, compiling “over 1,000 policy recommendations in many areas where structural racism is most prevalent, including policing, criminal justice, housing, transportation, voting rights, education, and many others.”
Kudos to the American Bar Association for formally passing “Ten Guidelines for Residential Eviction Laws” – setting out basic norms for humane and fair eviction proceedings, including good cause lease termination and pre-litigation diversion programs, and recognizing the important relationship between eviction reform and racial justice.
Research RFP: The Urban Institute is looking for researchers studying the housing impacts and housing innovations emerging from the COVID pandemic. The RFP aims to support researchers from groups, communities and geographic regions that have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially researchers of color. The deadline for a letter of interest is March 2, 2022. See the RFP here.
