Tag
housing

Date: February 13th, 2024To: Rep. Falkner, Chair, and Members, House Committee on Local GovernmentFrom: Mallory Rusch, Executive Director, Empower MissouriRe: Support for HB 2065 Founded in 1901, Empower Missouri is the largest anti-poverty advocacy organization in the state. As part of our work, we organize a statewide Affordable Housing Coalition. This coalition is made up...
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Missouri has a severe affordable housing shortage. Our partners at the National Low Income Housing Coalition show 72% of very low income households in Missouri overpay for their housing, and are housing cost burdened. Cost burden occurs when a household pays more than 30% of their income towards housing costs alone, leaving very little for...
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Empower Missouri has been saying it for years: Homelessness in the United States is a solvable crisis. It is unacceptable that our neighbors work full time jobs and are still unable to cover their basic necessities, like nutrition and housing. According to the 2021 Out of Reach report, parents in Missouri need to work a...
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Labor Day is at the top of my “Most Hypocritical Holiday Observance” list. On most holidays, large numbers of people take some action that is connected to the meaning of the holiday – practicing gratitude on Thanksgiving, giving flowers to a lover on Valentine’s Day, watching “the rockets’ red glare” of fireworks or displaying an...
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Since Empower Missouri’s focus is on securing basic human needs and equal justice for every person in our state, we receive quite a few calls from people whose food and housing security are in danger. This week I had a call from a tenant with low-income who is aware that the federal eviction moratorium has...
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This week I was honored to sit in Hearing Room 5 with some really stellar housing organizers as we offered testimony against House Bill (HB) 1315.  This bill aims to shorten the already lightning-fast timeline on evictions. The sponsor, Rep. Hardy Billington, testified that he was a landlord and that he occasionally had to evict...
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Jefferson City, MO — On February 20th, 2020, Empower Missouri, along with more than 100 other individuals and organizations, signed and delivered a letter to Governor Parson and House and Senate leadership encouraging them to re-institute the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) statewide match. Missouri has a dire shortage of affordable and available rental...
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Empower Missouri’s Affordable Housing Coalition recently released their 2020 legislative priorities. You can read it here. Some things on the list are very straight forward, some are really big asks, and some are common sense. However, one in particular is a bit more complicated.  Cities and states have a slate of tools available to them...
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Public comment letters are an increasingly effective tool in legislative advocacy at the federal level, with advocates across the country utilizing this format as a way to submit feedback to the government and make their voices heard.
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We learned about successful campaigns to increase benefit levels, create child support pass throughs, add a diaper or toiletries allowance, or end a flawed policy like the “family cap” in some states.
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