National Call to Action to Address Housing Affordability

WHEREAS, home equity is a critical component of wealth building and currently accounts for approximately 70% of the wealth in the African American community; and

WHEREAS, the availability of affordable housing is decreasing across the nation; and

WHEREAS, the homeownership rate for African Americans is approximately 26 percentage points less than the homeownership rate for White Americans; and

WHEREAS, the current shortage of affordable housing in most metropolitan areas across the nation creates severe problems, especially for minority workers, even in key occupations, such as police officers, teachers, and healthcare workers that are essential to every community; and

WHEREAS, housing trust funds are dedicated sources of public revenue at the state, city, or county level that must be spent on affordable housing; and

WHEREAS, housing trust funds currently existing 42 states and are being used to address the affordability problem in communities across the nation.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the NAACP, in partnership with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), will host a large-scale housing affordability summit to discuss affordable housing solutions such as housing trust funds that can be implemented at the local level; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NAACP work with partner organizations such as NAHB and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) to produce a state-level index that assesses the need for affordable housing in every state in the nation, disaggregated by race and age of prospective home seekers, to distribute to NAACP units and affiliates; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the NAACP provide information and training materials about housing trust funds to units and engage branches, Women In the NAACP, and the NAACP Youth and College Division to include information about housing trust funds in existing and new programming.