Dear PATHE members and supporters
Thank you for your support for our campaigns to restore the Barnes Housing Trust Funding levels and to close the shortage of 31,000 Affordable Homes in Nashville. As we look toward a mounting eviction crisis, we are so glad to know there are so many Nashvillians committed to our mission of equitable, affordable, and quality Housing, Transportation, and Jobs for our neighbors.
On top of the unprecedented challenges endured through 2020, next year will bring a new wave of tragedy through evictions and continued housing insecurity. Approximately 20,000 Nashvillians have no permanent home and the city estimates a potential for 67,000 evictions in 2021, thousands of which have already been filed and are simply awaiting hearings. That amounts to 1 in 10 Nashville residents.
The affordable housing landscape this past year was discouraging. Tennessee has accrued over $732 million in unused federal funds allocated for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Spending just 35% of its annual federal grant for TANF - the least of any state in the Southeast, this disregard for the needs of struggling families left thousands of Nashvilians in a state of Housing insecurity. Recommendations to increase the monthly benefit amounts, to provide transportation assistance and a housing stipend, among others, made last year by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities are now more urgent than ever.
The eviction moratorium in the federal CARES Act, which protected approximately one in four American renters, expired on July 25. Efforts to extend the Federal eviction moratorium were thwarted, and the subsequent COVID impact of evictions has been immense. Nationally, the results translate to a total of 433,700 excess cases and 10,700 excess deaths due to evictions in 2020.
Communities of color are especially hard hit by the pandemic and CARES Act money is not adequate to keep up. Lost wages, lack of financial relief and limited job prospects are overrepresented among Black communities, with the unemployment rate hovering around 8% nationally and an estimated rent shortfall between $25.1 billion and $34.3 billion.
PATHE is fueled by a determination that we can, and must, do better. This year we joined 9 other cities as a part of PolicyLink’s All-In Cities Anti-Displacement Policy Network The city teams will assess their existing policy landscape and create a comprehensive action plan; join monthly learning labs to share their accomplishments and challenges; and participate in working groups to build solutions in five key anti-displacement policy areas: fighting displacement to build prosperous cities for all. 1. Affordable housing preservation 2. Business and cultural stabilization 3. Community ownership 4. Equitable development 5. Tenant protection
PATHE continues to be a part of the Praxis Project, with Jackie Sims participating this summer in the network survey, which looked into community organizers' experiences during COVID while continuing to fight against systemic racism and oppression. You can find the reflection report here. Many organizations shared our experiences of limited in-person outreach and canvassing with a shifting focus to mutual and community aid and direct service delivery. COVID stopped our face-to-face canvassing and planning, but a dedicated core answers requests for support and assistance via social media, connecting people with resources and forms needed to apply for financial aid and to submit the CDC Declaration form to secure their housing through January 1st.
In the absence of Federal and State funding and willingness to support struggling individuals and families, a Housing Justice Policy framework that takes into account the intentional and state sanctioned actions that left so many in the South facing Housing insecurity and feeling the prolonged and myriad impacts of eviction. Theft of housing wealth in the Black community and communities of color dates back to HUD policies of the 1930’s, has been exacerbated by weak implementation and enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, by the Subprime Mortgage Housing Crisis of 2008, a punitive criminal system that creates long term barriers to housing and ownership, and the increasingly frequent instances of natural disasters in the region.
To bring these issues into a regional view and collaborate toward policies that can be implemented across the South, we are seeking grants and donation-based funding for a state-wide conference and a regional Housing Justice conference planned for Spring and Summer 2022. Based on progress to-date, we expect to have representatives from 8 states gather to share their successes and imagine a new slate of policies that can be implemented in spite of and to account for state legislatures that are opposed to these efforts. This framework will be informed both by the conversations and outcomes of virtual conferences and by the first hand experiences and input from Nashvillians that are facing housing insecurity due to rising rents and displacement. Additionally, donations can be invested into further outreach, empowering and amplifying the voices of renters and homeowners to bring this issue to the doorstep of our local leadership themselves.
We are seeing a glimmer of light at the end of a long tunnel of gridlock and inaction on housing policy. The House released a spending bill in July which provides overall funding for HUD at $13 billion above the president’s FY21 request and at least $1.5 billion above FY20 enacted levels. The House bill includes a number of provisions aimed at halting harmful and discriminatory proposals from the Trump administration, but the fight will not be easy.
We need your help to make 2021 a year of positive change. We need a Campaign to fight for equitable, quality housing for all Nashvillians. We need to raise up the voices of people like you across the State. Your generous contribution of time, expertise, and financial support is crucial to our success.
Thank you for joining us in these efforts at whatever level is possible for you.
Jackie Sims
Executive Director