On July 27, 2015, CARH along with over 1,500 other national, state and local organizations and municipalities sent a letter to Congressional leadership in support of the HOME program. The letter was sent to the leadership addressed along with copies also going to the full House and Senate Appropriations Committees as well as the House and Senate Budget Committees.

CARH members are encouraged to:

• Contact your Representatives and Senators and urge them to restore funding for the HOME program.
• Invite your Representatives and Senators to visit your company, take a tour of a HOME-funded development, or meet a family that used HOME dollars to access safe, decent, and affordable housing.
• Call Your Local Government Officials and tell them to contact your community’s congressional delegation and urge them to make restoring HOME a top priority.

In other news, HUD Secretary Castro is confirmed to speak on a HOME Coalition call next Tuesday, August 4 at 3:30 pm ET. This call will be open to HOME Coalition national organization members, their state and local affiliates, and other stakeholders concerned by proposed cuts to HOME in FY 2016, including the national sign-on letter signatories. Secretary Castro will provide brief remarks and participate in a moderated Q & A session for a total of about ½ hour. He will then depart the call and the HOME Coalition can continue on to discuss advocacy steps. The logistics of the call are being worked on. If you are interested in participating, please email CARH at carh@carh.org and we will send you the information once we receive it.

Finally, the HOME Coalition is working on a national report for release early this Fall. Part of the report will use quantitative data from HUD but we also want to share case studies of HOME “success stories”. To share your success story, complete the attached template and forward to CARH at carh@carh.org by Thursday, August 30, 2015. CARH will then send your submission to the HOME Coalition contact.