Affordable Housing Town Hall

Okay. Hey folks Derek Kilmer here we were going to do this as a Facebook live, but we're having a few technical difficulties, which is a part of the challenge of life under a global pandemic um but listen even before this uh covid-nineteen pandemic began uh our region's been grappling with affordable housing challenges. Uh that is threatened the well being of far too many families this past few months, though have been enormously challenging for folks in our region and all around the country and I think this pandemic. Not just impacted our economy, It's led to financial uncertainty and job uncertainty for a whole lot of people and that's why I think it's really important that the federal government does all it can to have the backs of workers and families and students during this time and that's why 101 Days ago, The House passed the Heroes Act, which among other things included almost $200000000000 in additional funding for housing and homelessness programs to help help communities address the needs of low-income renters and homeowners. And people experiencing homelessness look, we have a public health crisis, the likes of which we haven't seen in a century. We have the most significant economic crisis since the Great Depression and I don't think any of us want to see a massive housing and homelessness crisis on top of that. And that's why I'm happy to be joined today by two folks who are committed to working to make sure that does not happen uh Diane Yael, the president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition and Maureen Fife, the CEO of the Tacoma Pierce County Habitat for Humanity. Thank you for being with me. Thanks. And before we get to questions from folks across our region, perhaps we can start by talking about the enormous housing challenges that we're facing just so people get a clear understanding of what we're trying to solve for Dianne. Maybe we can start with you first off. I'd love it if you could tell folks about the National Low Income Housing Coalition just an incredible organization that does really important work in our region and across the country uh to combat this crisis of housing, affordability um and give folks a sense of the scale of the housing and homelessness challenges that we're facing not just now. but. To how covid-nineteen magnified the challenges that already existed sure, I'm glad to and thanks so much for having me and for having this important conversation, especially during such a consequential time, so the National Income Housing Coalition were a membership organization uh dedicated to achieving socially just public policy that ensures that the lowest income people have decent accessible and affordable homes. so we do our work with our members across the country. Uh with our network of about 165000 people, those are the people that we um mobilize when we. Calls to action to call their members of Congress and what we have what we call our state partners, which are typically uh statewide housing advocacy organizations that focus on state local housing policies and then they connect with us on the federal housing policy work. So we have 64 state partners in 42 states and in Washington State, our state partners, The Washington Low-income Housing Alliance, Fantastic Organization and Rachel Myers is actually a member of the Board of directors of the National Housing Coalition. So I think to to best understand the eviction crisis that we face right now we have to recognize where we were even before Covid-nineteen. Apartments affordable and available to them in Washington state for every ten of those low income renters. There's just three apartments that are affordable and available to them. So because there's such a shortage we had again even before covid-nineteen we had about 10000000 very low or extremely low-income renter households paying at least half of their income towards rent each month, and many were paying much more. You know 6070 80% of their income just to keep a roof over their heads. So when you have such limited income to begin with and you're paying so much of it for your home, you're always one financial emergency away from missing rents and potentially being evicted and worst cases becoming homeless. So for many of these same renters, the coronavirus is that financial emergency they've lost jobs. They've lost hours at work. They've lost wages. It's harder than ever for them to cobble together what they need to stay housed and to make rent and the protection. That Congress provided for renters in the Care Act and some of the resources that were made available to help people pay rent have either been depleted or quickly expiring. and so now we face a situation where it's very clear if Congress doesn't act and act soon, we'll have a tremendous increase in evictions and a spike in homelessness across the country. We're we're we're predicting as many as thirty to 40000000 renters are at risk of losing their homes by the end of the year if Congress doesn't act. I wanna get back to that notion of action and what that what form that should take, but before I do Maureen um thank you for being with me again We we spoke a bit last week and II told you I feel like I need to get you a punch card for the number of times you uh visit with me and and uh help um inform me in our in our region about the incredible work that habitat does, but remind folks what your organization does and then talk a bit about the challenges that we're seeing here in our region and how that's impacted your work. Sure. You always a pleasure by the way and I'll take my punch card whenever you're right uh. but for over 35 years, habitat has been providing affordable home ownership opportunities to low income families and that opportunity where families help build their own house and the houses of their neighbors. They get an affordable mortgage. They don't pay more than 30% of their income for their home and they're creating an asset. Our future, so there's something there when they leave the work world and that's very important and it brings stability not just to them, but that stability overflow for the neighborhood, the local school district um it's a huge value. so I will II definitely appreciate home ownership and think that entering the middle class is a big part of owning a. It does open that door um in the last recession, we saw a sea of foreclosures. We saw a lot of builders basically shut down and there were a lot of skilled workers that left the market. So in the past 10 years, we have been building nearly nothing and now we're paying for it um a habitat trying to deal with the huge influx of people that have. To the metro areas in Washington state, those higher income folks that can pay more and we're paying more created such a pressure on the marketplace and home sales are still increasing in value. They're off the chart. There isn't enough inventory out there and for our homeowners who would normally be looking for a starter home. Most builders are not building that small unit it it's. Where their profit margin needs to be so it's we are very short on units. There aren't enough people in the game working for that price point for affordability and I think um when we look at the cost of land, I mean, habitat and builder and there's other builders. we compete with everybody else on the market to buy land and. Very tough materials have skyrocketed in price lumber has gone just gone crazy, and so all of that adds to more cost in the unit, which affects affordability. um it's it's very challenging and I think one of the more frustrating things in the last several years is more and more of the cost of infrastructure community infrastructure is now on the back of the of the developer. so. Curves gutters um utilities, all of that is fully on the back of the builder, and if you're building an affordable unit, it often will be the thing that makes a project not pencil. No affordable housing so anyway, uh yeah, it's challenging. I think that there's opportunity hoping for opportunity. I know the Cares Act um had some wonderful mortgage protections, but for the 30% of mortgage holders out there that don't have a federal mortgage. They have the real protection and so um kudos to Pierce County for setting aside some funds for mortgage holders Low-income mortgage holders to get some. Of that mortgage assistance, but I'm hoping that there will be more of that. So let's let's talk about that and and let me do a quick run through of some of the things that were in the Heroes Act and then Diana I may just ask you to respond to what was included in the Heroes Act and what it would mean um, in contrast to you know kind of the no action alternative um you know so it was now I. 101 Days ago that the House passed the Heroes Act. Unfortunately, we've seen the administration and Senator McConnell not um not come to the table with uh action on uh on that proposal, but I think it's worth reminding folks what was in that bill. So first, it included a proposal that I have introduced with Denny Heck, my neighboring congressman and my roommate in Washington, DC, You know which provided $100000000000 in emergency rental assistance. It was a bill called the Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act. The funding there could be used for short and median term rental assistance for rent costs, things like utility payments and past due rent and fees and um utility deposits those sorts of things it also, you know acknowledging uh mare's comments on home ownership and provided $75000000000 for a home Owner Assistance Fund to provide homeowners with assistance to cover mortgage payments and property taxes and utility payments and other resources that. Them stay in their homes, which I think is really uh you know one of the ways we sell for homelessness is to help people remain housed. I included funding for something called the emergency solutions grants and the idea here is to try to prevent and respond to coronavirus outbreaks of folks who are experiencing homelessness. I think people experiencing homelessness if if if not provided resources um could die could require hospitalization um could continue to spread the virus. Our communities and adding stress to an already stressed health care system um the Heroes Act also included a national and uniform moratorium on evictions and foreclosures for up to a year, which again, while you've seen States including the state of Washington Institute, their own moratoriums. There's moratorium that um you know make sense for Congress to take that step to have a uniform policy that protects all renters and homeowners no matter where they live, did some other things uh to um emergency housing vouchers um for folks at risk of. Funding for the Community Development Block Grant Program, which is flexible funding to our housing authorities and others so a lot of really good stuff in there and and Diana I'd like to you know, get your reaction to that and you know we've heard some say well, you know the president did an executive order. You know isn't that enough. Uh you know in my senses. The answer is clearly no, but from your organization and your expertise share with folks why that's not enough. Sure, I'm glad to uh uh uh I'll start with the second question because it's essential that people realize that low income renters understand that the president's executive order does literally nothing to stop or prevent evictions and it's incredibly harmful to have him and others in the administration going out there saying that they've taken action to stop evictions when they have it because it gives renters this false sense of security. This false sense of hope that they're not. At risk of eviction, when, in fact, they are that executive order only uh essentially requested that some departments consider whether Covid-nineteen uh might be spread further if evictions happen and if they find that it does to consider what they might do to prevent some evictions. So it's it's an empty shell that executive order. what renters need are the provisions that you just. In the Heroes Act, those are essential to stemming this tide of evictions that's coming and this increase in homelessness. The thing about this tide of evictions is that it's not only entirely predictable. We've been predicting it for 4 months now five going on 5 months, but it's completely preventable and it's preventable by the kind of actions and the kind of provisions and resources that are provided in the act. We've been saying from the begin. That you know the very least the federal government ought to do in the middle of a global pandemic is assure us all that we're not gonna lose our homes in the middle of it. so we need to have a uniform national moratorium on all evictions for non payment of rent for the duration of the crisis, but eviction moratorium on their own aren't enough because eventually they expire and when they do they create this financial cliff for renters to fall off of when back rent is due and the renters are. More able to pay it than they were at the beginning of the pandemic, and that's why emergency rental assistance is so essential, not just for those low income renters. But for the small landlords too, who can't continue to maintain and their properties without rental income coming in and so the bill that you and Denny Heck and Maxine Waters introduced in the house and that Senator Sherrod Brown introduced in the in the Senate is essential $100000000000 in emergency rental assistance would keep blowing. Renters Stable house during and after the pandemic and then I also just wanna um our our our our other top of the top three priorities. The third is the eleven and a half $1000000000 that you mentioned in emergency solutions grants to homeless shelter providers homeless service providers basically to keep people who are experiencing homelessness, safe and alive during the pandemic and to get them housed. As possible so that they remain safe that they don't over burden or already overstretched hospital systems that they may it becomes possible for us to contain the virus as a country. So these three provisions are essential and the longer it takes for the Senate to act on them. the longer it takes for us to actually get these protections in place the harder it becomes to avoid long-term harm to families to. To communities and really to our entire country when we got uh and you just touched on, I think the answer to this uh in the lead up to this um Phyllis in Tacoma wrote in and said, I'm concerned about people. I know who are unemployed and behind on rent. How can we make sure they don't get evicted? Um how can we get the Senate to make sure that doesn't happen and I think what's important and Diane you just touched on this is uh you know there's a upfront principle of you know folks shouldn't have to. Eviction or foreclosure for something that wasn't their fault. You know the the the The challenges folks are facing right now and that's what drove uh what's included in the act. That's what drove uh some of the legislation I've put forward. It's what's driven governors to do a ban on evictions um, but you know you your starting point has to be. it's not it's not fair or right to exacerbate homelessness to have people face eviction or foreclosure for something that wasn't their fault. Ask you just one other quick thing and I wanna jump back to Maureen um touch on why it's important to do this nationwide uh not just you know state by state and also if there are any lessons learned from that, oh eight recession about how security was impacted by that recession. Um you know it's uh I think it'd be valuable to weave that in to uh understanding the concerns that was raised around uh around just housing instability tied in to this recession. Sure I mean. Terms of why we need a federal intervention and federal response uh two things. I'd say that one is just the scale of the problem requires a federal government intervention states and localities cannot make up for the lost rental income. Uh that renters can't pay and that small landlords need uh in the state of Washington alone, we estimate um Washington renters would need about 400. Dollars just through the end of December, just through this year to keep them stable housed $100000000000 nationally is needed states and localities can't find that money in budgets that are already being hit hard. um for other reasons from the financial fallout of covid-nineteen, The other reason is that it's really a matter of equity and justice. I mean in Washington, you are fortunate to have a governor who has. Implemented a statewide eviction moratorium and extended it through mid October and that's very good and it will likely need to be go longer than that. There's renters in other states that have been unprotected from eviction from the beginning of the pandemic or who's who's governors have allowed those eviction moratorium to expire despite the continuing need and you know, I think we either agree as a country or we don't that evictions in the middle of a pandemic harm everybody and if we agree. Then it shouldn't be based on the luck of the draw if you're lucky enough to live in a state with a governor who implements an extensive eviction moratorium you're protected. But if you live for example in Texas, you're gonna be evicted and your family's gonna be evicted. It's just it's not it's not equitable. It's not just so I think for those two reasons it's essential that there'll be a federal intervention and as far as 2008 and the and the crisis that we face then um I think you know. One is that I think it's important for us to recognize that the challenges that we face now are in a much bigger scale than in the eviction crisis that we face right now that we are staring down is far greater uh two to three times as many households are at immediate risk of losing their homes than we saw it at the height of the foreclosure crisis and the other thing that we know from the foreclosure crisis and it it is that um families. Many families who were hit hard and lost their homes have still not recovered from losing their homes in 2008. All that wealth that was wiped out has not been replenished and so I think we get a glimpse there from the ripple effect of harm uh and costs to our country. Uh if we were to allow this this way to to to happen without any um action to stop it. So um we got another question in uh from Lisa in Aberdeen um and she touched on these issues related to rental assistance, but she also touched on something that you commented on in your opening remarks and that was just the shortage of affordable housing units across the country. Uh she wrote America's experience a housing crisis that did not have to be this severe, a severe lack of affordable housing in nearly every community in the country combined with decades of low wages. Many families to the brink financially, you know, let me just say up front um at least at first thanks for the question, and I agree that the shortage of affordable housing units has been exacerbated by this pandemic, but we III share the New Democrat coalition. We did a report back in 2018 before anyone had heard of coronavirus called missing millions of homes that identified the fact that we as a nation needed about 10000000 more housing units uh as a country. You've seen some limit legislation. I'll be put forward to address that uh the uh again uh uh a bill. I'm a cosponsor of the Denny Heck, the lead on called the fulfilling the promise of the Housing Trust Fund Act, which was introduced before the pandemic that would increase the construction of affordable housing. Um by expanding the National Housing Trust Fund. Uh you know, we know that there is an inadequate amount of funds available for that purpose, and that would be one way to help. We know that the. Uh it's you know, putting the low-income housing tax credit on steroids uh which there is a bill to do that was introduced before the pandemic can be a piece of that trying to drive some density in areas. There's a charming uh named uh the yes in my Backyard Act uh which would try to drive some uh that density through accessory dwelling units and uh those sorts of things. but Maureen, you know uh II know even in the midst of all of this. Is still working with future homeowners to build homes across our region, and no one was completed just a few months back even amidst this crisis so share more about the need for just more housing units and what sorts of programs can and have been helpful uh in uh making sure that there's more units available. Um I think there are lots of federal funds that come through to us the bill. Through our jurisdictional partners that have been incredibly helpful, obviously, community development block grant funds home funding um are very helpful. but when you look at trying to build a smaller unit, maybe more dense um it's going to take. I think cooperation of the cities and counties willingness to. State funds with more federal dollars to create more units, There's gonna have to be builder uh subsidy on the front and huge down payment assistance on the back if it's for Entry-level home ownership because the product almost doesn't exist anymore and for habitat, I mean we do a lot of housing counseling and it's a year long walk to get to the place. Or you own your own home and obviously that is not um ideal for many families, but home ownership should not be something that's only available to the rich. Um people of color have been cut out of their chance for ownership. For a long time through the red lining that we've recently had a little bit of study on and access to affordable credit and there has been systems over the years that have kept people out of creating wealth over time and entry-level home ownership is that relief valve for people being able to exit subsidize rental and get to a place of their own. So I think um. It. It's gonna take a lot of leverage. It's building more units isn't going to be quick for residential in Pierce County. They say it's 4 years from door to door knobs. so that's a long time. It doesn't happen overnight, but if we don't build strategies now we won't get there. Dianne Can you speak about this? You know the missing millions of homes? uh what that means for folks around the country. You know how this pandemic may be exacerbating the problem, but perhaps most importantly, what can and should be done about it or uh you mean. In many of the solutions, I mean when it comes our work is around um we focus on the lowest income renters. So we're talking about renters who are extremely low income. We're talking about a family of four with two working parents who have a combined income of $25000 or a senior or person with disability on very limited fixed income of nine to $12000 a year. The private market can't build and maintain homes that are affordable to such extremely low income. On their own, because the rental income that comes in isn't enough to cover the cost of building and maintaining and operating properties. So that's a basic market failure and it's uh where the federal government needs to step in and correct that market failure with subsidy and so for the lowest income renters again the solutions they're not they're not easy, but they're pretty simple. right. We need to build more apartments that are affordable to the lowest income renters through programs like the National Housing Trust Fund through deeply. Low-income housing tax credits We need to bridge the gap between people in the private market what they are and what it costs to rent apartments and you do that through rental assistance through Section eight vouchers or through a renter tax credit, we need to build more apartments in general to bring down costs for everybody. We need to remove restrictive zoning that um inhibits the supply of any kind of apartments, especially affordable apartments and drives up costs for everyone and we need some time. Of cash assistance Eviction prevention to help extremely low-income people who can otherwise hang on and make ends meet cushion. Uh you know or a financial shock and stay housed. Um those are the solutions we we've had the solutions. We've known the solutions for many years, and if not decades, the only thing we've always lacked is the political will to actually fund those solutions at the scale necessary and my. Is that a crisis like the one that we're in when it's it's never been more clear that housing is health care and how much we all suffer when hundreds of thousands of people don't have homes and millions more are on the cusp of losing theirs that this might be the kind of moment that helps us build that political will to actually be willing to make the kind of investments um to to solve the housing crisis to end homelessness once and for all, it's a good Segway and I'm Diana and I make calling you again on this one. Peter in Port Townsend had emailed in a question, he wrote as a constituent who believes me. Worked in poverty, I believe Congress must ensure any emergency spending package includes resources to help people experiencing homelessness and housing instability for America's lowest income renters, he writes. Unfortunately, Senator Mitch McConnell's, July 27th Proposal doesn't include any emergency rental assistance for millions of unassisted households facing evictions and homelessness during the pandemic unless Congress acts soon, he writes. Millions of low-income renters face a housing cliff when eviction moratorium and other relief measures and front employed workers uh and other relief. And for unemployed workers expire this will put millions at risk of homelessness in the middle of a global pandemic. We can't let this happen so let me just say up front. Peter Thank you for writing in and I'm with you, you know. Unfortunately, the Senate proposal for Covid-nineteen relief is just not uh it's not up to snuff. you know first of all to your point. The bill doesn't include an extension of the eviction moratorium, and we just spoke about why that matters and when we talk about the Heroes Act, including almost $200000000000 for making mortgage and rent payments and maintaining housing. The Heels Act that the Senate Republicans put forward offers $3.2000000000 for housing so 200 versus three um Diana. I think you've referred to the funding in the Senate proposal is kind of a drop in the ocean of need uh talk a bit about why the Senate proposal is inadequate and why we need a more serious investment here. It's extraordinarily inadequate the funds that were in the heels Act. The $3.2000000000 is not only and. Uh inadequate, it's it, it does nothing to actually prevent evictions because those are funds for already subsidized renters to make up for the lowered rent that they'll pay with their reduced income. So it's for those public housing agencies to be able to continue to be made whole and continue to operate those units, which is important. but those subsidized tenants aren't the ones that are most at risk of eviction in the coming weeks and months, it's the unstuck. Tenants who are desperately in need of a lifeline and incredibly uh the Heels Act was already so inadequate and insufficient. and then the Senate Republicans came out with their so-called skinny bill that actually took the $3.2000000000 out and there's nothing now in that skinny bill and that they're proposing to enact what's most unfortunate about the negotiations completely falling apart. stalling is that in those final weeks and in those final days some. Were coming around and recognizing that they had to do something to prevent evictions in their states and we we had talked to about a dozen Senate Republicans who are reaching out to their leadership in the Senate to say we need to do something. We need an eviction moratorium or we need rental assistance and you know the scale was still to be negotiated. The length of an eviction moratorium was still to be negotiated, but they were starting to get it and they were starting to push their own leadership and then it all. And I don't know what happens now to actually restart those negotiations. I mean the closer we get to an election. The harder it is to envision Congress actually being able to enact something of substance um, but the need is just extraordinary and there are so many people hurting right now who are already being evicted or who just can't sleep at night because they know they will be soon and they are trying to figure out where they're gonna go with their kids when they become homeless in the middle of a pandemic. So I don't know I. To you congressman to ask you know what do we do to actually get those negotiations restarted and get these essential provisions that you have supported and acted because they're so desperately needed well, certainly why we're trying to shine a bright light on this issue. Um I'm a big believer in what Lincoln said. Lincoln said. public sentiment is everything and so I think it's very important for folks who care about this to make sure that their voices are heard um. Maybe that's a good Segway into the next question because there's a bit you know so Kyle C on Twitter wrote in and said why does the federal government need to deal with this? uh he wrote. Why is this a national issue? Why can't states and local governments deal with this? You know, maybe I'll speak briefly and then Maureen and and and Diana I invite you to make some comments to you know you can go back to the Great Depression and find the federal government playing a role in trying to ensure housing affordability and and ensure affordability of mortgages um. Way back to the 1930s, and I think you can draw a straight line over time to see uh Congress's involvement the federal government's involvement, including in the Moving Forward Act, which just passed uh a few weeks ago out of the house, which would bolster affordable housing units with the federal government investing uh some funding and using tax credits in hopes of either refurbishing or build a new uh 2000000 affordable units. uh. You have an entire federal agency through the Department of Housing and Urban Development that really I think is pretty central, not just to our local housing authorities, but frankly and more, you can speak to this to the work of organizations like Habitat for humanity. So maybe maybe more. I'll give you the first crack at this, You know, talk about the importance of federal funding and federal and financing for addressing affordable housing in our region. You know programs that when I talk with you or when I. Our housing authorities like the Federal Home Investment Partnership program, the Self-help home Ownership Opportunity program Community Development block grants um how does that make your work possible? Um so those funds are critical without those funds. We would not build. We can't make up that kind of a margin. We can't provide opportunities to families at the lowest end of the scale without that support, so those programs are critical. To habitats across the nation for building um, I think no one expected a global pandemic. This has so deeply affected every community everywhere in the United States. It is a government is it requires government in the broadest sense of the term to create a solution. so you can't leave it up to states and cities on their own. We need a. Strategy because the gifts that Kobe brings keeps on giving it is really tough to deal with and it's gonna be a while I think so again love to see the Senate get on it because of foreclosure or eviction as we all know and Diane stated it clearly that it is years and years to come, it will affect someone's ability to rent again affordably to get another job to buy a car it it will affect. In the market, so yeah, we need this help. Diane You spoke to this earlier a bit and I I'm conscious of having just this morning spoken to a couple of state legislators who were talking about the state's projected shortfall here in the state of Washington. I spoke to a bunch of county commissioners who are projecting very significant revenue shortfalls because of this pandemic. so uh obviously they're not in a terrific position to do more. uh they're looking at how they how to re trench in the face of all of this and if. There is an absence of a additional federal support, so why is the federal government so important here in addressing this problem? I think the federal government always has a clear obvious important role to play in building and maintaining a social safety net for our country's lowest income and um most marginalized people that's always the case, especially in a global pandemic where people. Are suffering financially now because governments shut down local economies in order to manage the pandemic. It's clearly not the fault of low-income renters who are struggling and on the cusp of or already having fallen into homelessness. so the federal government absolutely has to step in and keep people housed. It's also again in this in this pandemic uh where our collective health depends on our ability. Stay in our home, You know we all have a stake in making sure that tens of millions of renters don't lose theirs and states and localities can't match the scale of need that exists right now in our country in Washington state, there are I believe fourteen uh rental assistance programs at the local level. Those are funded primarily through Care Act funding that was passed by Congress back in March. Um there are some. The about 325 emergency rental assistance programs that we're tracking around the country and the one thing that all of these emergency rental assistance programs. The state local programs have in common is their funding is being quickly depleted by overwhelming demand. They cannot meet the demand. in some cases, they're having to shut down their programs within hours or within days after the funds are depleted. so the federal government has an essential role to play here to step in and provide the funding and the protections needed to keep people housed. I know we're nearing our witching hour, but I wanna get to one more before we wrap it up uh Cecilia in Tacoma wrote in uh and this touched on Diane, something you just mentioned, she wrote. I urge you to extend the federal eviction moratorium and at least $100000000000 in funding for emergency rental assistance. in the next covid-nineteen relief bill. the impact of mass evictions will overwhelm overwhelmingly burden tenants of color and in particular black women, she writes on average by. Renters had evictions filed against them by landlords that double the rate of white renters in seventeen out of 36 states, according to a study by the ACLU Women's Rights Project and Data analytics Team Black women in communities of color, she writes, will likely suffer the greatest hardship due to mass evictions worsening the existing racial disparities that have merged in the impact of the covid-nineteen pandemic, and then she concludes no one should be forced out of their home during a global pandemic and Cecilia first of all, thank you for weighing in. On what is an incredibly important issue and you're right, the premise of your question, I think is really important. Unfortunately uh black Americans Native Americans and Latino Americans have disproportionately felt the challenges of this pandemic certainly from the standpoint of public health uh where um the infection rates and the mortality rates um uh have been. In those communities, there's a report in the New York Times. uh that look at some federal data and black and Latino populations have been three times as likely to become infected and twice as likely to die from the virus, white populations and um on on you know no one should have to face the worst prognosis because of their race or their ethnicity and then on uh in addition to that you add on the disproportionate impact from an economic standpoint. uh where you're. Disproportionate impacts on employment uh on housing uh and on economic opportunity, and I think this is a really important thing. Obviously, part of the effort in the act was to try to address some of this uh economic upheaval. That was a big part of it. and then there's also bills you know that are trying to get at some of the inequities that in-house. I mentioned that yes, in my backyard Act, which basically provides. Uh a benefit to uh to jurisdictions that um if they have inclusive zoning and uh if they have anti discriminatory, land use policies and um and facilitate affordable housing, but you know, I think clearly more needs to be done on this front and Dianne talk about what the what your organization has been working on to ensure greater equality and housing and to address some of this. Uh injustices Yeah. thanks for that and I'm so glad uh Cecilia raised that because it's such an important issue and it's so important that we recognize that this wave of evictions that's coming will be predominantly black and brown renters, and you know the current crisis heightened the risk of evictions for uh black and Latino renters, But the risk isn't new right. We've had decades of racist federal housing policies from redlining to. Busting to restrictive covenants to restrictive zoning and it has resulted in uh this yawning wealth gap where today the average white family has twelve times the wealth of the average black family. and so as a result of this um historic inequities in this systemic racism, we have tremendous disparities in our housing system. so people of color are disproportionately likely to be renters. They're disproportionately likely to be. Rent burdened they're disproportionately likely to be extremely low income. They're disproportionately likely to be homeless. Um black people make up about 13% of the general population in our country. They are 40% of people experiencing homelessness and they're 50% of homeless families with kids and so these inequities are compounded now by covid-nineteen right that black and uh Native Americans are bearing the brunt of infections and fatalities and black and Latino. Are bearing the brunt of this historic job losses and now their homes and with it their their family's ability to stay safe and healthy are at risk. So these issues of racial justice and housing justice are very much uh intertwined and we can't achieve um racial justice without housing, justice and vice versa. It's it's there are two sides of the same coin and Maureen. This has been a priority for you and for habitat I know as well um talk about the work you're doing to try to address inequality in the work that you do and the diverse community. That we serve um so habitat locally and nationally we very intentionally reach out to our partners in the community to spread the word about home ownership and whether it's through us or another affordable kind of opportunity. I mean we see the value in asset creation and uh we're working very hard. I think over the last 10 years over 60% of our homeowners have been people of color um. We think that's a really important statistics that we're working on it, but it does take national policy to help drive that change. We made it through a whole bunch of questions and I wanna thank you both for um giving uh really detailed answers that I think um will provide a lot of insight for folks who are concerned about this. Let me invite you if you have anything that we didn't cover that you wanna touch on um Marines and uh you're close to getting your punch card. I'll let you go first. If there's anything we didn't cover that you wanna share with folks um I think the. Thing I'd like to remind anybody that might be having trouble making their house payment during the time of if you live in Pierce County. Pierce County has set aside funds for assistance so you need to go to the Pierce County website to see if you qualify because Pierce County will help you with 3 months of house payments up to $5000. So it's um we don't wanna see another sea of foreclosures that are scooped up by investors changing the. Of our neighborhoods locally so Diane any final thoughts for folks who are watching um just that I'd love to invite people to visit our website, which is WWW.NL IHC dot org. That's stands for national composing coalition where they can find um that database of emergency rental assistance programs and a database of eviction moratorium protections and uh ways to get involved and push Congress to actually enact the solutions that are needed. Thank you, I'd like to just thank you both in closing, not just for spending the time with me and our constituents today. but for the extraordinary work you do on a daily basis. It really matters. This was a challenge that we faced before this pandemic. Obviously those challenges have been amplified by this pandemic and I'm just incredibly grateful for your leadership and for your partnership as we work to make sure that people have stable affordable housing. so thanks and uh for those. Took the time to watch. thank you for watching and please don't hesitate to reach out to me or to our team. If we can never lend a hand. thanks everybody. Thank you. Thanks.