Ask Your Senator To Keep Historic Housing Investments In The Bbb Act

On Friday, November 19th, the House of Representatives passed the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act – completing a key step in securing historic investments in affordable housing. We still need your help, however, to ensure that these housing commitments remain intact as the bill heads to the Senate.

The Build Back Better Act contains over $150 billion in affordable housing investments, including:

• $25 billion in rental assistance including $22.1 billion for the Housing Choice Voucher program and $1 billion for project-based rental assistance.

  • These investments are estimated to serve 300,000 households (and 42,500 in California alone) and include funding targeted to people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness and survivors of domestic violence and trafficking.

• $65 billion to preserve public housing.

  • This investment will help protect the health and safety of around 2.5 million public housing residents by increasing energy efficiency and remediating health hazards.

• $15 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund.

  • ​This investment is estimated to build or preserve more than 150,000 rental homes affordable to those with extremely low incomes. California is estimated to receive the largest share at $2.7 billion.

This once-in-a-generation bill is set for a Senate vote in December, where concern over topline figures leave affordable housing investments vulnerable to being cut. This is where we need your help!

Please take a few minutes to contact your Senators today and urge them to support the Build Back Better Act and ensure that the current housing investments included remain the same.

Call Your Senator Today!

To contact your Senator, enter your state in the site linked above, call the office, and do the following:

• Share your name and the state that you live in,
• Let the staff member know why housing and homelessness is an important issue to you,
• Tell them that we can’t waste this opportunity to get the federal resources we need to end homelessness, and
• Ask for the Senator to pass the Build Back Better Act as quickly as possible and ensure that these historic housing investments remain intact.
• For California State Senators, please call Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office at (202) 224-3841 and Senator Alex Padilla’s office at (202) 224-3553.

You can also write to your Senators. It takes less than a minute – please write them by clicking this link and following the directions here.

If you have any questions, please contact Samantha Vethavanam, Legislative Affairs Analyst, via email.

Thank you so much for your advocacy to date. Your voice has been critical in pushing this historic bill forward and ensuring that robust funding for affordable housing remains a key priority in Congress.