The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending America's affordable housing crisis. It aims to expand and preserve housing for people with extremely low incomes. NLIHC provides current information and data on affordable housing, and formulates policy and increases awareness on housing needs and strategies.
8-632: NLIHC was founded in 1974 by Cushing Dolbeare , a housing policy analyst and consultant. Initially named the Ad Hoc Low Income Housing Coalition and incorporated as the National Low Income Housing Coalition five years later, Dolbeare created the organization in response to Nixon's 1973 moratorium on federal housing subsidies. To Dolbeare, the lack of affordable housing was for poor people a chronic problem with few available solutions. In
16-650: A researcher, policy analyst, and board member until her death. Dolbeare was an adviser and friend to several Secretaries of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 1995, Jason DeParle wrote in The New York Times that she was the “dean” of the Washington Corps of housing advocates. In 2002, she was awarded the 8th Annual Heinz Award in the Human Condition. Dolbeare worked with housing organizations past her retirement; she delivered
24-612: A two bedroom house in every jurisdiction in the country. Cushing Dolbeare Cushing Niles Dolbeare (June 25, 1926 – March 17, 2005) was one of the leading experts on federal housing policy and low income housing in the United States . She designed the methodology for Out of Reach , the widely cited annual report of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) on the gap between housing costs and wages of low income people. She
32-594: The Department of Agriculture or low income housing tax credits. Around the 1980s the coalition was affiliated with the Low Income Housing Information Service. The organization's annual publication, Out of Reach , developed a formula called the "housing wage" that spotlights the gap between income and housing costs. The widely cited report identifies the number of hours someone earning minimum wage would have to work to afford
40-552: The organization's first years, it operated out of Dolbeare's Capitol Hill home. Similar interest groups at the time include the National Tenants Organization. Since the early years of the 2000s, NLIHC was active in leading housing advocates in the creation of a federally funded housing trust fund. The National Housing Trust Fund was passed as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. In 2016,
48-606: The organization. Yentel succeeded Sheila Crowley, who retired after leading the organization for more than 17 years. In October 2024, Yentel announced she was tapped to lead the National Council of Nonprofits and would be leaving her role in NLIHC. NLIHC has developed a national database on subsidized and federally assisted housing. HUD provides data on the number of rental assistance and insurance program it administers, which NLIHC combines with data on properties supported by
56-657: The trust fund started providing grants to states to increase the supply of rental housing for extremely low income households. NLIHC continues to advocate for increased financial support to the National Housing Trust Fund. Dolbeare headed the organization from 1977 to 1984 and 1993 to 1994. In 2014, NLIHC commemorated its 40 years of operations with the announcement of a new leadership Council of former board chairs, executive directors, and founding members. In 2016, Diane Yentel, who worked as an NLIHC analyst in her first Washington, D.C., job, became president of
64-620: Was also known for her analysis of federal housing subsidies, which document the disparity between the cost of tax-based subsidies that benefit homeowners and direct spending on housing assistance for low income households. Dolbeare began the National Low Income Housing Coalition in 1974 when she organized the Ad Hoc Low Income Housing Coalition in response to the Nixon Administration ’s moratorium on federal housing programs. She served as NLIHC’s Executive Director from 1977 to 1984 and from 1993 to 1994. She remained active with NLIHC as
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