Housing is an essential need that provides the foundation for people to build their lives, find work, raise the next generation, and age in place.
Our access to housing and the community resources near our homes have been shaped by policies and practices that have harmed and excluded people of color. These inequities continue today while our communities across the country grapple with an affordable housing shortage, weak tenant protections, and increasing corporate consolidation that contribute to displacement and persistent poor housing quality.
Local governments have a critical role in protecting tenants, ensuring their policies and programs preserve and develop housing so that it is accessible for all residents, is resilient and responsive to our changing environment, and contributes to the well-being of our communities and residents throughout its design, construction, and maintenance.
Rent stabilization policies are essential, common sense solutions to help address the housing crisis and keep people in their homes. This toolkit, developed by Local Progress Impact Lab in partnership with Power Switch Action, breaks down the key components of a rent stabilization policy so you can build a policy that best meets the needs of your community.
Local Progress’s new messaging guide provides a framework for how to discuss housing justice issues and rent stabilization based on polling, research, and messaging best practices from local electeds in our network. This introductory level guide provides sample messaging and talking points that can be used with constituents, media, and colleagues on renters rights and rent stabilization policies.
In this report – titled Housing for the People: How Local Governments are Building Social Housing Solutions for Public Good – the Local Progress Impact Lab, Power Switch Action & PolicyLink have outlined how building and managing housing in the public interest can guide us out of our housing crisis. The report shares this work and offers guidance for how to think about social housing policy for your community.
As a membership organization, we believe our work is most impactful when it is informed and guided by members. Bringing a diverse range of expertise and local experience, our Housing Steering Committee advises and shapes our work in this area:
Minneapolis City Council Member, MN
Oakland City Councilmember , CA
Chicago City Alderperson, IL
Philadelphia Councilmember , PA
Oklahoma City Council Member, OK
Former Denver City Councilmember, CO
New York City Council Member, NY
Baltimore City Council Member, MD
Cambridge City Council Member, MA
St. Louis City Alderwoman, MO
Rochester City Councilmember, NY
