'In Seattle, one of the nation's least affordable cities, there's a renewed focus on housing vouchers and how to make the system work better for applicants and landlords'

pbs.org/newshour/show/…

A reminder that:

🏡 only 1 in 4 people eligible for rental assistance receive it, due to limited government funds

🏡 half of renters across the country pay more than 30% of their income for housing (aka 'cost burdened')

🏡 waitlists for housing vouchers are often years long

Advocate for expansion of the MA Rental Voucher Program! 585,000 households meet existing criteria, yet 335,000 of them are currently unserved.
~reduce homelessness
~address racial inequities
~alleviate poverty
~improve housing stability

I now live in a place without any rent control and my clients are being forced out because landlords are raising the rent by more than 20%, these tenants have no where to go and are being forced from their communities #tenantscantwait

(((Matthew Lewis))) progressive federalism SOS I have always found anti-voucher sentiment among some activists perplexing. They'll say, 'lots of market rate landlord won't accept vouchers,' which is true. But many landlords *do*, and vouchers provide recipients with something deed-restricted units can't offer: portability.

Fully funding Sec 8 (and expanding it to include more low income folks) + expansive market rate development will be a tsunami level solution to create true affordability, quality, and choice.

There are more than 400,000 children in foster care. 117,000 waiting to be adopted.

Every year approximately 20,000 youth age out of the system.

They are at increased risk of poor educational outcomes/homelessness/unemployment.

Amy Coney Barrett during oral arguments had

I mean.. I might as well just buy a house lol

🧵1/4 Raise Our Wage, Cap Our Rent‼️🚨SAVE THE DATE: Wed May 15th for a big upcoming rally with housing justice organizations and other union labor allies, etc. to DEMAND urgent relief for a million low-wage renters🔔📣! It's time to make the rent affordable & wages livable🏠

Unpaid rent in low-income housing is a growing concern, exacerbating the risk of displacement for vulnerable renters.

“They’re just unable to pay rent because the rents have been increasing so quickly.' tinyurl.com/runna95t

'I either had to go to the hospital and be seen or pay my rent.'

buff.ly/445wVc4

By: Veronica Morley via @23ABCnews

New report 🚨: In 2023, landlords filed more than 1.1 M evictions in the 30+ cities and 10 states we track. That’s over 100,000 more than in 2022 and a staggering increase of over 500,000 cases compared to 2021.

The year 2023 represented a return to the status quo.

'But if people have more money, landlords will just raise rent and take it all away!'

Combating this perceived danger by making sure that we keep people poor, and so therefore don't have as much money to gouge, is not as clever as many people seem to think it is.

Obviously, a

Rent control and community-owned housing please! Let's make it easier to AFFORD to live and stay in Massachusetts. STOP making it easier for rich corporations to stay in Massachusetts and PRICE US OUT by making everything from food to housing more expensive for the working class!

1 Our first nomination this week is from W who is supporting a young man as he lives with diabetes, high BP and depression. He’s recently having tests for cancer and has had procedures that are making it impossible for him to work. He is falling behind with his rent

Thanks to LA Progressive for picking up our important story about how sky-high rents are linked to more deaths.

But #RentControl can stabilize the housing affordability crisis -- and save lives.

Rent control works! laprogressive.com/housing-and-ho…

There are currently 53 million unpaid caregivers in the U.S.

Ty Lewis, who cares for her elderly mother with Alzheimer's while also raising her own children, is one of them — and she has built a community for those who feel left behind and emotionally and financially drained.

I’d like to pose this question to my landlords who are raising my rent by like $200 a month with no parallel increase in the quality of my apartment

It’s so cool when your rent is 75% of your budget

It’s so fun having all my money go to being extorted just to have a roof over my head

One big reason disability makes many uncomfortable is because we rely on others for help. We remind them that we need others to survive; that we can’t just individualize ourselves in every situation. Our country is so cut off from community and we remind them of the need for it.