News & Resources

This newsletter highlights some timely policy news, provides updates on our efforts to shift coordinated entry processes, includes information on how you can increase affordable housing as well as several other new tools and products. Beyond any resource we can share, we invite you to join us in thinking about what it means to be both aspirational and practical as you set your intentions for the year ahead. Who will you be in 2021? How compelling is your vision? How will you partner in service of change? Will you take inspired action?

Did you know that the Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) is a tool that advocates can use to influence the kinds of housing projects that receive Low Income Housing Tax Credits? The QAP outlines each state’s eligibility priorities and criteria for awarding LIHTCs to developers.

“I like the idea of changing our assessment tool, but I want to know how other communities are doing it.” Join us for the next webinar in our series: Coordinated Entry Decision Tree (Pt. 2): Putting it into Practice! In this follow-up to our August webinar, we dive more deeply into the Decision Tree as an alternative tool for prioritizing vulnerabilities and housing assistance.

This webinar will offer strategies to address common housing obstacles that survivors face, including evictions, emergency transfers, admission denials, and lease bifurcations in LIHTC units. The webinar will provide an overview of housing protections for survivors applying for and living in LIHTC units. Presenters will discuss survivors’ housing rights under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and related laws. They will also briefly cover protections for tenants under federal and local eviction moratoriums.

Survivors and people with lived experience are the driving force in our missions - and should be driving forces in our agencies as well. In this webinar co-moderated by the National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH) and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), we'll spotlight three programs that have found effective ways to ensure meaningful involvement of survivors and people with lived experience, including in decision-making and political advocacy work. Presenters will discuss how they enacted this commitment, the roles and supports available to survivors who get involved, how they center the voices of Black. Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQ people, and what they see as the impact of survivor involvement.

Homelessness and domestic/sexual violence do not impact all survivors equally. Survivors from marginalized communities face additional challenges weathering domestic/sexual violence and housing crises. This webinar will summarize findings from a community-based participatory research study conducted in collaboration with survivors from marginalized communities. Participants will learn more about the cycle of housing insecurity model, and survivors’ barriers in getting and keeping housing.

The National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH) and Regional Housing Legal Services have created a webinar series for survivor advocates on what they should know about the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The LIHTC program is the largest federal program encouraging the creation of affordable rental housing for low-income households in the U.S., with approximately 100,000 new units developed annually and producing over 3 million total housing units, since the program’s inception. The LIHTC program is a critical source of affordable housing for tenants, including survivors. Yet, much about the LIHTC program is not commonly known among advocates working with survivors.

In this issue, we begin to make the case for a bold change in how local communities prioritize vulnerabilities and housing assistance - and the need for a nationwide shift to a trauma-informed and culturally-responsive approach. Employing these principles to re-imagine and re-design housing systems will benefit all individuals and families in need of housing supports, regardless of victimization experience.

Immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, and human trafficking face unique challenges when accessing and maintaining safe housing. Housing is a primary concern for survivors living with violence because it directly affects their ability to leave an abusive relationship. COVID-19 has exacerbated problems with safe, accessible, and affordable housing as survivors are forced to stay at home – making violence in their homes more frequent and dangerous. For those survivors looking for alternative, safe housing, there is misinformation among housing providers and survivor advocates about immigrant survivors’ eligibility for housing and homeless assistance programs. Here, we clarify some of these misconceptions as well as provide resources and tools with more detailed information supporting advocacy on behalf of immigrant survivors.

The National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH) and Regional Housing Legal Services have created a webinar series for survivor advocates on what they should know about the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The LIHTC program is the largest federal program encouraging the creation of affordable rental housing for low-income households in the U.S., with approximately 100,000 new units developed annually and producing over 3 million total housing units, since the program’s inception. The LIHTC program is a critical source of affordable housing for tenants, including survivors. Yet, much about the LIHTC program is not commonly known among advocates working with survivors.