Dear SHA Family,
March has so much character! Spring begins. Time changes. The Ides of March. St. Patrick’s Day. Women’s History Month. This March unfortunately marks the 1-year anniversary beginning the shutdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. One year ago, we all faced an unknown virus with disastrous consequences to the world, our nation, our state, and our community. It has touched us all. Families have suffered sickness and devastating loss. Our community is experiencing economic calamity with job loss, potential evictions and or foreclosures, hunger and the list goes on. We are all exhausted. However, we are strong. We are resilient and there is hope. A New Hope. We have a long way to go but we are in this together. As we move forward, and begin to repair the damage, we are in a position to make transformational change in our society. In our newsletter this month, we are focused on sharing information on how we can repair, rebuild, and reclaim our lives and our community.
Sincerely,
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Kendra Lewis
Executive Director
Sacramento Housing Alliance
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Our Mission
Sacramento Housing Alliance advocates for safe, stable, accessible, and affordable homes in the Sacramento region. SHA builds healthy communities through education, leadership, and policy change.
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Our Vision
Everyone in the Sacramento region has a home in a healthy and inclusive neighborhood.
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Housing Element Work & Updates |
Housing is a human right. The housing element is a city or county’s blueprint to address housing growth for all income levels. SHA in partnership with the Public Interest Law Project, and Legal Services of Northern California has reviewed several housing elements within the Sacramento region. In our advocacy, we are urging local jurisdictions to include adequate sites to build affordable housing, innovative programs and policies to support the |
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construction of affordable homes for individuals with low incomes, and that jurisdictions produce a thoughtful analysis and plan to affirmatively further fair housing. |
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State
The deadline to introduce bills in the California Legislature this session was February 19. The past 2020 session was disappointing as many housing bills did not make it to the Governor’s desk, with some of them being reintroduced this session. The Terner Center at UC Berkley has released an article summarizing several bills to watch.
Federal
Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition released the following letter on March 10th congratulating Marcia Fudge on her appointment as the new Secretary of HUD. Secretary Fudge, for more than 30 years as a public servant has been a “champion"
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for individuals and families who are paid a low income. Her work is distinguished by its focus on racial equity, striving to address the systemic racism in policies and practices that have funneled resources away from communities of color and made it exceedingly more difficult for these communities to thrive.” |
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The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act was approved by Congress on March 10, 2021. This 1.9 trillion dollar plan provides $27 billion for rental assistance combined with the $25 billion provided by Congress last year and a separate $5 billion for utilities included in the ARP. This is expected to eliminate the over $50 billion of rent and utility arrears that struggling renters have accrued during the pandemic. This along with $5 billion in new funding for states and cities is anticipated to provide housing stability
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for tens of thousands of people experiencing homelessness. NLIHC discussed the plan in the following article.
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Racial and Social Justice |
Covid-19, has not only unrooted our way of life and caused over 500,000 deaths in America, during Covid-19 there has been an increase in hate crimes against the API (Asian Pacific Islander) community. We stand against these hate crimes and ALL hate crimes. Lets make our communities and nation stronger by working together to make it easier to prosecute hate crimes and hold racist individuals accountable. |
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Join the Fight for a Fairer World: Take the Equity Pledge Click Here
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The City of Sacramento is working on a Master Siting and Operations Plan to address homelessness within the City. Each district has held local meetings to determine potential sites to house individuals experiencing homelessness. In March the City will be looking at several funding and financing opportunities, and will be hosting several workshops during City Council Meetings.
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centers into year round triage centers. We are urging the City to ensure that there are pathways to permanent supportive housing, as this is key to providing long term solutions to our displaced community members. |
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Become a Member Today
The Sacramento Housing Alliance is a member-based organization that works to increase the supply of affordable housing and support the efforts of affordable housing developers. We need strong and engaged membership that reflects a broad base of community support for progressive affordable housing and regional equity policies.
Membership in the Sacramento Housing Alliance links you to a community of compassionate advocates and thought
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makers and gives you access to member-only events and early access to issue papers.
Members receive
· Discounted rates to our annual
Affordable Housing Summit
· Educational seminars and
discussions
· Lively networking receptions and
other SHA-hosted events
Members are eligible to nominate individuals to serve on the board and nominate award recipients.
Organizational members may extend event discounts to their employees, and may request promotion of their outstanding projects and programs by SHA.
Most importantly, membership in SHA will strengthen our work advocating for a safe and affordable home for all in an inclusive and healthy
To Learn more about becoming a member and the benefits Click Here
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In this section we highlight an organizational member who is making a difference in our region and state. Habitat has been an active member of SHA for 15 years. Habitat for Humanity is a |
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sleeping giant in our community that we are proud to highlight in this month’s issue.
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento was founded in 1985 and just celebrated 35 years of bringing community together to build and preserve affordable homeownership opportunities for low-income families, seniors, and veterans while revitalizing underserved neighborhoods. Please use the link below to an article written on the amazing work being done in the Sacramento Region.
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Sacramento Housing Alliance is Hosting
A Conversation with Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Please see our flyer and a Zoom link to register below.
Congresswoman Waters, Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee will be reviewing the American Rescue Plan Act 2021, and reviewing how the policies will support affordable housing developments.
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Sacramento Tenant Protection Program Overview
March 30 at 1:30pm
The City of Sacramento Tenant Protection Program assists residential tenants by ensuring compliance with limits on annual rent increases and protections for unjustified evictions. The City of Sacramento is hosting a series of virtual webinars explaining the program requirements of the Tenant Protection Program. The second in this series will explain tenant and landlord rights and responsibilities on March 30 at 1:30 p.m. Register online here.
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Join Us as We Launch the Roadmap Home 2030
March 25 at 12pm
The Roadmap HOME is our comprehensive framework of equity-centered, evidence-based policy solutions that will build more affordable housing in the state of California. Follow the link below to register for the launch.
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