Mercer Alliance News Alert (7/24/08)


Affordable Housing for Working Families
The Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness is devoting this newsletter to advocacy strategies for affordable housing for working people. It may be obvious that an alliance to end homelessness should be concerned with increasing the supply of affordable housing, but a few words are in order to explain our focus. The Mercer Alliance is committed to promoting affordable housing for all working people, but especially for those *of very low income, who have very few champions in our upwardly mobile society. Here’s an example of someone we need to be concerned about, the home health care worker who comes to your elderly parent’s home and earns between $19,000 and $22,000. That worker needs to live somewhere close by, if you expect her to get to work in a timely way. Given rising gas prices, it is unlikely that she will be able to maintain a car to reach work. Given the limits on public transportation routes, there are only so many places that she can be expected to live and be able to reach her clients. She needs to live in your town. That is why housing for the very low income worker makes sense in each and every town in Mercer County. We need to urge our towns to maximize affordable housing for the very low income worker. A new state law mandates that 13% of all affordable housing be set aside for the very low income. For-profit developers are unlikely to be interested in building this category of housing. Towns will need to work with local non-profits who take building such housing as their mission. Take Action and Make Difference in Your Town* Recognizing that you are a busy person and that advocacy does take time, we have structured our advocacy options around three levels of action. Level One – Sign an on-line petition, which we will forward to your municipality. Level Two – Make a call or send a customized letter. Click on the appropriate links, which will take you to a script for calls or templates for letters to the editor of your municipal newspaper and letters to your mayor and town council. Level Three – Visit a planning board hearing or a town council meeting. Encourage a non-profit agency to develop a strategy for housing in your town. Join with others on a municipal advocacy team to make a greater impact by working together. One final point: There are many ways to argue for workforce housing. We are focused on people – the workers that the housing is needed for. One could also focus on how diversity strengthens the fabric of your community. For more extensive arguments, see the resources we have posted on our website, under the heading Municipal Advocacy. Additional Resources Frequently-Asked Questions and Answers For Advocates of Affordable Housing Talking Points to Advocate for Affordable Housing Script for Call Letter about Affordable Housing	Take Action and Make a Difference in Your Town Please Select your Municipality from the list below to download your Petition, Councils, Editors and Mayors letters. Also, you click on the link to find out about upcoming Planning and Council Meetings. East Windsor Township Petition for East Windsor Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Ewing Township Petition for Ewing Township Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Hamilton Township Petition for Hamilton Township Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Hightstown Borough Petition for Hightstown Borough Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Hopewell Borough Petition for Hopewell Borough Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Hopewell Township Petition for Hopewell Township Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Lawrence Township Petition for Lawrence Township Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Pennington Borough Petition for Pennington Borough Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Princeton Borough Petition for Princeton Borough Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Princeton Township Petition for Princeton Township Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings Robbinsville Township Petition for Robbinsville Township Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings West Windsor Township Petition for West Windsor Township Letters of Support Planning and Council Meetings

Take Action and Make a Difference in Your Town