Our Homes Our Votes

Our Homes, Our Votes mobilizes low-income renters and engages candidates for public office. ³

Background

Our Homes, Our Votes provides material, resources, and strategies to public housing communities and Indigenous housing communities. The resources include training sessions, resident association meetings, and posters with voter registration deadlines and election dates. ¹

Our Homes, Our Votes is a campaign under the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an organization founded in 1974 that focuses on “achieving racially and socially equitable public policy” to promote access to affordable housing. ²

The National Low Income Housing Coalition said it would provide resources for its Our Homes, Our Votes initiative that include conducting candidate surveys, organizing transportation on election day, hosting candidate forums, and maintaining an effective voter database. ⁴

The Our Homes, Our Votes campaign divides voter engagement into three phases. The first is registration to expand the number of voters in low-income communities and subsidized properties. The second is education and making sure voters have information about candidates regarding affordability issues. The third is voter mobilization. ⁴

The initiative claims renters are underrepresented among voters. ² It argues that building political will for affordable housing requires mobilizing low-income renters, nonprofits, housing providers, and tenant associations. ²

Partner Organizations

The National Low Income Housing Coalition developed its voter engagement materials with help from national left-of-center partners including the Alliance for Justice, the League of Women Voters, and Nonprofit VOTE. ²

Our Homes, Our Votes collaborates with other organizations. These include ​Bolder Advocacy, an initiative of the Alliance for Justice; the Fair Elections Legal Network; the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law; VOTE411.org, a resource of the League of Women Voters; ​Everyone Votes, a campaign of the National Alliance to End Homelessness; You Don’t Need a Home to Vote, a campaign of the National Coalition for the Homeless; Election Protection Coalition; The REV UP Campaign, launched by the American Association of People with Disabilities; Rideshare2Vote AWARE; Spread the Vote/Project ID; and VoteRiders. ⁵

Advocacy

The Our Homes, Our Votes campaign advocates federal legislation and administrative action to preserve voting rights for low-income renters. ³

It advocates for a bill called the Our Homes Our Votes Act, or H.R. 10215. It was introduced by U.S. Reps. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), and Nikema Williams (D-GA). The legislation would assist voter registration for residents of public and federally subsidized housing by adding public housing agencies and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-assisted housing providers to the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the “Motor Voter Law.” ³

It also supports U.S. Senate Bill 2971 and U.S. House Resolution 5294, or the Unhoused VOTE Act, short for Unhoused Voter Opportunity Through Election Act. The proposals were introduced respectively by Rep. Williams and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). The legislation affirms that no person may be denied the right to vote because they do not have a traditional home. ³

The Voters on the Move Registration Act requires the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Election Assistance Commission to develop a uniform statement with information on voter registration and voting rights, available to residents of public and federally assisted housing. Public housing agencies and owners of federally-assisted properties would have to provide a copy of the uniform statement when residents sign their leases or fill out income verification forms, and owners of properties with federally backed multifamily mortgage loans must provide a copy to renters at the time that their lease is signed. ³