{"id":23903,"date":"2019-05-18T10:19:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T16:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=366075"},"modified":"2019-05-18T10:19:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T16:19:04","slug":"national-affordable-housing-group-to-regional-leaders-at-vail-event-keep-advocating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/national-affordable-housing-group-to-regional-leaders-at-vail-event-keep-advocating\/","title":{"rendered":"National affordable housing group to regional leaders at Vail event: Keep advocating"},"content":{"rendered":"
From left are NAHRO’s Sunny Shaw, Tess Hembree, Patricia Wells and moderator Julie Brewen. The national housing advocacy organization was in Vail for its annual conference.<\/strong>
Randy Wyrick | randy@vaildaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VAIL \u2014 One of the country\u2019s largest and most active affordable housing organizations gathered in Vail to encourage its members that we\u2019re all in this together.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of members of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials attended the Colorado state conference in Vail\u2019s Marriott. Along with education and training, they get some encouragement that they are fighting the good fight, and not by themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are not alone in your work. The challenges you face are faced around the country,\u201d said Sunny Shaw, the new NAHRO president.<\/p>\n

Shaw launched her housing career as a receptionist with a housing agency in Idaho and has seen housing from the ground and from 30,000 feet. She travels the country and says that the workforce housing issues the Vail Valley faces are not unique to Colorado.<\/p>\n

In many places, a bartender or barista might earn $21,000 a year, but rents can run between $700 and $1,000 a bedroom, or more.<\/p>\n

Those who may be struggling with rent are resort workers in service industry jobs. Rents are high and wages are low. It\u2019s a problem faced by workers in expensive places all over the country, Shaw said.<\/p>\n

For housing advocates, from the beltway to state capitals, everything matters: funding decisions, regulation changes \u2026 everything, we need to pay attention, Shaw said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a responsibility to be at the table. We don\u2019t want to be served up on the table.<\/p>\n

Patricia Wells, NAHRO\u2019s national senior vice president, encouraged NAHRO members to \u201cadvocate all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your voice matters<\/h2>\n

Voices matter, especially yours, Tess Hembree, NAHRO\u2019s director of congressional relations, told hundreds of housing specialists during a panel discussion.<\/p>\n

NAHRO makes it relatively uncomplicated for its members to lobby lawmakers. Just use the material on their website.<\/p>\n

In 2018, NAHRO\u2019s members increased the number of letters to Capitol Hill by 140% with 70% more people writing.<\/p>\n

The longest government shutdown in American history was a problem, but not the catastrophe it could have been. While much of the media focused on the TSA and problems with air travel, NAHRO members bombarded members of congress with 3,700 letters and other communications, relaying stories of how the shutdown was affecting their clients because the rental assistance program was on the ropes.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress paid attention, both sides of the aisle,\u201d Hembree said. \u201cGrassroots efforts can make changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not out of the woods yet. Following that long shutdown, the two-year federal budget cycle is up in October. The House and Senate will have to agree on a deal and members should brace themselves for potential cuts: possibly $56 billion in domestic programs and $70 billion in military spending, Hembree said.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From left are NAHRO’s Sunny Shaw, Tess Hembree, Patricia Wells and moderator Julie Brewen. The national housing advocacy organization was in Vail for its annual conference.Randy Wyrick | randy@vaildaily.com VAIL \u2014 One of the country\u2019s largest and most active affordable housing organizations gathered in Vail to encourage its members that we\u2019re all in this together. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 01:43:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}