Remaking the Economy: Housing Justice Webinar in Partnership with Shelterforce!

Tuesday, September 1, 2020, at 3:00 pm EDT*

On September 1^st, rent will be due for millions of Americans. The CARES Act eviction moratorium expired on July 24^th–and localities in many states have once again begun to evict tenants behind on rent, even though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim thousands of lives. In this webinar, frontline tenant advocates will offer a real-time picture of what’s happening on the ground—and help identify what individuals and nonprofits can do to address the housing situation in your own communities.

Nationally, a ten-organization research team estimates that 30-40 million Americans face the possible loss of their homes. How can we avoid this horrific outcome?

For this webinar, NPQ is once again partnering with Shelterforce—a nonprofit publication that has been following the housing justice movement for over 40 years—to explore the state of housing justice in the US and highlight present-day stories.

We will also be joined by tenant organizers—affiliated with two national networks, People’s Action and Right to the City—who are organizing across the country to protect families and ensure that people keep their homes amid the pandemic.

Our panelists are:

• Miriam Axel-Lute, editor of Shelterforce and a regular writer and analyst of housing justice and community development issues for over two decades.

• Coya Crespin, organizer for Community Alliance of Tenants (an affiliate of the Right to the City network) in Portland, Oregon, where she works on intersectional issues ranging from housing justice to police brutality.

• Maya Neal, organizer with KC Tenants (an affiliate of People’s Action) in Kansas City, Missouri, where she is leading radical actions to protect her community from evictions in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This webinar will explore:

• What is needed, beyond eviction moratoria, to keep people in their homes amid the pandemic
• How to protect tenants in your community, and what steps people who are behind on rent payments can take to protect their families
• What policy levers are available—local, state, and federal—that nonprofits and individuals can use to protect housing in their communities
• The impact of structural racism on housing, and how that is interacting with the pandemic today
• Federal, state, and local policy struggles for rent relief
• Promising housing justice practices that are emerging amid the crisis
• New paths that nonprofits are pursuing to address housing challenges today
• What a post-pandemic housing justice vision could look like

Whether you’re a nonprofit leader, board member, or engaged in community-based organizing, this webinar will provide you with real-life examples and lessons learned that can inform your work in your own community.

The moderator for this webinar is NPQ Economic Justice Program Director Steve Dubb. Steve has worked with cooperatives and nonprofits for over two decades and has been both a student and practitioner in the field of community economic development.  

*The recording and slides of this webinar will be available on the NPQ website 2-3 days after the live event.