The 2025 NLIHC Housing Policy Forum is on March 24-27, 2025!

 

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2025 NLIHC Housing Policy Forum

March 24-27, 2025
| Capitol Hill Day: March 27

NLIHC’s annual housing policy forum is an opportunity to engage with and learn from thought leaders, policy experts, researchers, tenant advocates, affordable housing practitioners, and members of Congress about how to end the housing and homelessness crisis impacting low-income renters in America.

In-person registration for NLIHC’s Housing Policy Forum 2025 is sold out! On-site registration is unavailable. 

Register today to attend virtually! Virtual registrants will have livestream access to plenary sessions and NLIHC's 2025 Leadership Awards Reception. 

Virtual registration 

Contact

Jen Butler

VP of External Affairs

jbutler@nlihc.org

Adelle Chenier

Director of Events

achenier@nlihc.org

The Baltimore Inclusionary Housing Board Meeting is March 14th!

 

REGISTER

Celebrate March as Women's History Month!

March is Women's History Month!  The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. Locally, the Baltimore City Women’s Commission invites you to join us for a special luncheon in celebration of Women’s History Month! Under the theme "Moving Forward Together: Women Educating and Inspiring Generations," we will honor the remarkable women educators of Baltimore City who are making a profound difference in the lives of their students. This inspiring event will feature a keynote address from former Senator Jill P. Carter, a performance by international comedian and performer Ti Malik Coleman, and remarks from the Mayor and members of the Women’s Commission. General admission is $25.00. Event Details:  Date: Saturday, March 29, 2025.  Time: 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. (GMT-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).  Location: Tawes Ballroom, Coppin State University.  Address: 2500 W. North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21216. Free parking is available in Lot F on the Coppin Campus behind the Miles W. Connor Administration Building. To access, turn right (or left if coming westbound on North Avenue) onto Loop Road and drive up towards the Softball/Soccer Fields and turn right into the lot. A parking attendant from the Office of Equity and Civil Rights will be there to direct you to open parking spaces. For accessibility parking, please park in lot D. We look forward to celebrating with you! Register Here!

7 E. Redwood Street Baltimore, MD 21202 Phone # 410-396-3141 Manage Preferences  |  Unsubscribe  |  Help

Please Help Defeat the 30-Day Eviction Notice for Subsidized Housing

 

Millions in subsidized housing rely on the 30-day eviction notice to remain housed. But the “Respect State Housing Laws Act” would erase that safeguard—when the last thing we need is more evictions. We’re urging Congress to reject this bill and uphold tenants’ basic rights. Will you help by adding your voice? When federal protections are rolled back, it puts our most vulnerable community members at risk and lowers the bar for everyone.  The last thing we need is more evictions, so please join us in opposing this bill.  Send your letter now to defend the 30-day notice requirement and help keep people in their homes! Thank you for joining us in this fight!

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National Housing Law Project Leads 200+ Orgs In New Letter Urging Congress To Protect Tenants From Avoidable Evictions

The National Housing Law Project (NHLP) has sent a letter to congressional leadership signed by more than 200 national, state, and local organizations urging Congress to protect tenants from unfair, unexpected, and avoidable evictions at any time. In various states, landlords can evict tenants in the private market with little, if any, notice. Federal law requires a 30-day notice for those tenants living in housing under the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Agriculture (USDA), other federal housing programs, as well as other federally-backed housing. By giving tenants 30 days to fix issues with their tenancy before their landlord can file an eviction, the law helps both tenants and landlords avoid undergoing an expensive eviction process. NHLP and the George Washington University Health Justice Policy and Advocacy Clinic will soon meet with congressional leaders to discuss protecting the 30-day notice requirement and prevent a reversal of this critical protection.

The letter comes after lawmakers backed by real estate industry corporations reintroduced bicameral legislation that would repeal 30-day notice and put seniors, families with children, people of color, people with disabilities, and veterans at immediate risk of displacement or even homelessness. If passed, the bill would roll back existing protections that tenants, landlords, and courts rely upon, and shrink the notice period for an eviction across the country from 30 days to as little as five days or less in federal housing programs and federally-backed properties.

Read the National Housing Law Project’s letter and statement in response to the 30-day notice repeal bill. Find here a research brief with data showing how 30-day notice protects tenants and stabilizes communities.

Read the February 28, 2025 NHLP article.

HUD Baltimore Field Office to Close, Along with Many Other HUD Field & Regional Offices

 

The Baltimore field office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will soon be permanently closed, along with many other HUD field offices. The downtown Baltimore office, which employs about 90, is to be shut down. All who work there will likely be terminated by order of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency. The closure is part of HUD's reduction of regional and field offices.

Eliminating the Baltimore office and transferring cases to other FHA offices will mean it will take longer to receive approvals and resolve issues between the loan originator and the agency. Boston or New York are already swamped with servicing the loans. HUD construction analysts, appraisers, underwriters, and, most importantly, asset management who know the market here are all going to be eliminated. It is going to make it much more difficult to finance and monitor housing.

The biggest impact will be a severe slowdown in processing Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans for multi-family projects, one of the Baltimore office’s major functions. An observer commented, “It doesn’t make any sense to do this in the name of saving money. They finance anything from affordable- to market-rate projects, and they also asset manage them. They actually make money – billions – for the federal government that gets put back into the general fund.” Created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression under the authority of the National Housing Act of 1934, the FHA is one of the main government agencies that offers low down payment mortgages for qualifying homebuyers.

Other functions of the Baltimore office include Community Planning and Development (CPD), which administers local grants to promote better housing and expanded economic opportunities to low and moderate income persons, and enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing-related activities. Another loss from the shutdown of the field office will be oversight of Section 8 and voucher housing and local public housing authorities. Because this office administers the money to public housing authorities and keeps a watch over those funds, there will be more opportunity for fraud.

Responding after publication, the HUD Public Affairs Office said “no decisions have been finalized.”

Read the March 5, 2025 BaltimoreBrew article.

Read the March 5, 2025 Bloomberg article.

HUD Publishes Very Weakened Version of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule in the Federal Register

 

On March 3, 2025, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published its stripped-down version of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule in the Federal Register. This interim final rule repeals the 2021 interim final rule, including any parts of the 2015 AFFH Rule incorporated therein, and the 1994 AI requirements where they appear in regulation or guidance.

The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule is intended to implement a provision of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which banned housing discrimination and predatory real estate practices. The AFFH was designed to help local governments and housing agencies proactively address persistent barriers to fair housing and equal opportunity. Learn more about the history of the Fair Housing Act and the AFFH rule at the National Fair Housing Alliance. 

Under the new AFFH Interim Final Rule (IFR), jurisdictions will still be required to certify that they are affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH). However, these certifications will be deemed sufficient as long as the jurisdiction took any action during the period that is rationally related to promoting fair housing, such as efforts to eliminate housing discrimination or to improve housing conditions. Unlike previous requirements, jurisdictions will not need to provide detailed reports or justifications to demonstrate compliance.

The rule will be finalized on April 2, 2025. HUD is inviting public comment on the IFR for a 60-day period until May 2, 2025 and has said that all feedback will be considered as part of its ongoing review to ensure consistency. Comments can be submitted to the Federal Register: Federal Register: Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Revisions.

To support stakeholders in the AFFH public comment process, PolicyLink has developed a public comment guide for the Biden Administration’s 2023 Proposed AFFH Rule. While the 2025 IFR differs from the 2023 proposed rule, the guidance in this resource are relevant. The Guide provides essential tools to help individuals and organizations craft strong, equity-focused comments, including: strategies for advancing equity in public comments, An overview of the federal rulemaking and public comment process, a step-by-step guide to writing and submitting effective feedback, key data sources to strengthen your comment, Sample language tailored for organizations across sectors 

PolicyLink Comment on 2023 Proposed AFFH Rule

PolicyLink Full Comment Guide for the 2023 proposed AFFH Rule

Despite this shift at the federal level, states and local jurisdictions can continue to implement their own policies and planning efforts to promote inclusive communities. 

Explore more about AFFH and access additional advocacy tools:

Alliance for Housing Justice: Understanding AFFH - Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing | AHJ 

National Fair Housing Alliance: Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing - NFHA 

National Housing Law Project: Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing | NHLP 

National Low Income Housing Coalition: Racial Equity and Fair Housing: Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) 

PRRAC: Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH)   

Read the March 3, 2025 PolicyLink article.