National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials

National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials

Advocacy Toolkit

Welcome to the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials’ Effective Advocacy Toolkit. Here you’ll find a wealth of resources designed to help you and your advocates analyze and discuss housing issues with a wide variety of audiences.

Table of Contents

Education vs. Public Relations vs. Advocacy vs. Lobbying 2

Why Advocacy at the Local Level is Important 3

What You Need to Know About the Community and How You Serve 3

What You Need to Know About Decision Makers 4

Crafting Your Message 6

Overall Messages 6

The Message for YOUR Community 7

Building Coalitions 10

Finding Coalition Partners 10

Worksheet: Identifying Potential Coalition Partners 11

Individual Advocate Intake Form 12

Coalition Intake Form 14

Delivering Your Message 15

Phone Calls 15

Written Communications 16

Effective Meetings 17

Effective Site Visits 18

Site Visit Worksheet 19

Effective Advocacy Checklist 20

Education vs. Public Relations vs. Advocacy vs. Lobbying

Often, the terms “advocacy,” “education,” “public relations,” and “lobbying” are confused. Following are the definitions we’ll be using for purposes of this workbook:

·  Education: In many cases, a better understanding of what you do to promote decent, safe, affordable housing and economic opportunity in viable, sustainable communities. Education involves providing general information about the services you provide in the community. The goal here is to be sure people know what you do.

·  Public Relations: Experts look at public relations in a variety of different ways. For our purposes, we’ll consider public relations to be one step beyond education. Instead of simply putting information out there, the goal in a public relations effort is to promote a positive impression. One of the strategies most associated with public relations is media outreach, although testimonials from supporters and engagement of outside groups can be helpful as well.

·  Advocacy: For our purposes, advocacy is different from public relations in that it is about pleading or arguing for a specific cause. The key here is the term “specific.” Effective advocacy campaigns are oriented around a need, whether it’s funding, policy change or even just attention from a decision maker.

·  Lobbying: Finally, lobbying is, for our purposes, even more specific than advocacy. In the vast majority of cases, lobbying is usually done by professionals whose role it is to keep track of the many legislative activities happening in a state capitol or Washington DC. They meet individually with key legislators and staff to discuss the merits (or downsides) of minute details of legislation. Lobbyists may often inform advocacy efforts (for example, by providing details on the status of legislation).

Note that while federal law clearly states that no federal funds may be used for lobbying, it does not in any way restrict the PHA’s traditional role of educating and advocating on critical issues. Government officials rely on your expertise and insights as they make decisions about housing policy and funding. Without you, they will have little or no idea how their actions will impact their constituents. See the NAHRO site at www.nahro.org for more on this important issue. State laws differ as to these issues, so be sure to familiarize yourself with them as well.

Why Advocacy at the Local Level is Important

Studies show that communications from constituents telling their local stories are the number one way to influence decision makers. In the policy arena, citizen voices are far more important than even professional lobbyists. So not only do you have a role in promoting a positive impression, the stories you share within your agency and programs can have a powerful impact as well.

Ready to dig in? Here we go!

What You Need to Know About the Community and How You Serve

To be influential with others, you must know a great deal about your own situation and services. Some of the key things you might want to know about housing in your area include:

·  How many residents are associated with your agency / program?

·  What properties are you associated with? Where are they? Whose districts are they in?

·  What are some of your “premier” projects?

·  How do those properties specifically benefit the community?

·  How specifically have you used government resources in the past to benefit the community?

·  Where would people turn if your services were not available?

·  Who funds housing services in your area?

·  Are there multiple sources of funds? (note that most communities have access to local, regional, state, federal and private funding). If so, what are they?

·  Who makes the decisions about how funds are spent?

o  Local legislators such as city council members?

o  Local agency heads?

o  State regulators?

o  Federal regulators / legislators?

o  A combination?

What You Need to Know About Decision Makers

This worksheet should be used to capture information about critical policy leaders, such as local city council members, state legislators and regulators or federal policy makers. Create as many copies of this “decision maker intel” worksheet as you think you might need. Then, fill in as much as you can about each.

Decision Maker Intel

Name of Official______

Name of Relevant Staff: ______

Address: ______

City: ______, State:______, Zip: ______

Phone: ______E-mail: ______

Website: ______District / Party: ______

Is this a new official (i.e., new to this particular office): Yes No

If known, what are three of his / her top policy interests?

Try www.usa.gov to track down city and county websites

For state and federal legislators, look at their website as well as bills they’ve introduced. You can get access to state legislative websites at www.ncsl.org and federal at www.congress.gov (for bills introduced) and www.house.gov / www.senate.gov for individual websites

If known, please indicate whether this official supported or opposed housing and redevelopment issues in the past.

Does this official have any personal connections to the issues?

If known, please make notes about any previous contact with this official (meetings, phone calls, fundraising, etc.)

Did you support this official when he/she was a candidate? Yes No Did Not Know of Candidate

If yes, did you actively support? (i.e., volunteering on his/her campaign, attending a fundraiser, setting up a meeting) Yes No

Do you know this official personally?: Yes No Somewhat

Please note any personal connections (i.e., “went to school together”, “worked together” etc.)

Please make note of any other relevant information about this official:

Crafting Your Message

Following are some key overall points to consider when crafting your message. In the next sections, we’ll look at how to customize these messages for your situation. All statistics are from NAHRO’s 2013 Legislative and Regulatory Agenda.

Overall Messages

ABOUT THE PUBLIC HOUSING PROGRAM

·  Nearly 60 percent of Public Housing households live on a fixed income and are elderly and/or disabled.

·  Public Housing-assisted families have an average income of approximately $13,650.

·  More than 40 percent of Public Housing-assisted families include children.

·  On average, Public Housing residents pay more than $320 a month in rent and utilities.

ABOUT THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM

·  Approximately 60 percent of families served have a head of household who is disabled and/ or elderly.

·  Over 50 percent of households utilizing a voucher are families with children.

·  The average non-elderly/disabled household without children utilizes a voucher for 3 years. For comparable households with children, the average is 6 years.

·  The average annual gross income of a family utilizing a voucher is $12,783.

·  The average voucher-assisted household’s monthly payment toward rent and utilities is $298.

OUR NATION’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING CRISIS

·  Nationwide, there are only 30 affordable rental units available for every 100 extremely low-income renters (at or below 30 percent of area median income), and just 57 affordable and available rental units for every 100 very low income households (at or below 50 percent of area median income). (National Low Income Housing Coalition)

·  There is not a single state in the country where an individual working full-time at the minimum wage can afford the average fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment for his or her family. (Ibid.)

·  The total number of units renting for $500 or less fell by one million from 2007 to 2010. (American Community Survey)

·  The number of renter households with worst-case housing needs grew from 5 million in 2001 to 8.5 million in 2011.* (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)

How do these statistics play out in your community? Are there other programs that impact you directly (such as the Small Housing Agency Reform Proposal – SHARP – or the Homeless Assistance Grant Programs)?

The Message for YOUR Community

Decision makers will be most interested in how the programs you care about impact their constituents and stake holders. Following are some key elements of a successful message, with details on how they relate to the work we’ve done so far.

Creating Your Story

Any good message starts with your story. Use the following worksheet to develop your story. Then we’ll look at pulling this information into a well-crafted brief but effective communication

Worksheet: Developing Your Story

Here are some questions / ideas to help you develop your personal story:

Why did you become an advocate?

How does housing issues impact you or your community directly? Have you had any personal experiences with low-income housing?

If you’re comfortable with it, it’s perfectly appropriate to weave your own background and story into the policy message.

Can you share the compelling story of any friends / colleagues / residents? You don’t have to name names.

Every day you provide valuable services to individuals. Think about who those individuals are and how their stories may make an impact.

How do these people and others connect to the policymaker?

How do these stories relate to policy issues? For example, if your story is about a family of four trying to live on a minimum wage salary, how does the housing voucher program benefit them?

The SPIT Technique

Next, you’ll want to take everything we’ve talked about and create a very short statement that can be used for a meeting, phone call, e-mail or other communication. Think of it as an advocacy “elevator speech.”

The formula below is based on the SPIT technique. SPIT is an acronym as follows:

·  S = Specific: Be as specific as possible about what the leader can do. For example, “we would like you to write a supportive letter” or “we would like you to visit one of our projects” is better than “our housing authority provides valuable services”

·  P = Personal: Messages that are based on compelling stories have more of an impact. As noted above, think about specific people you have served. How have you helped them keep a roof over their head? How have these programs kept people employed? How many children do you serve? This really helps you focus on the benefits instead of just the fact that you might need funding.

·  I = Informative: In addition to that personal story, you’ll want to have some valuable information to back it up. Some of the information you might want to provide includes:

o  Number of people served

o  Number of people employed

o  Specifics on programs provided

o  Types of patrons served

o  Special materials / services provided that relate to the community

·  T = Trustworthy: Finally, your message should suggest that you are trustworthy and the best way to do that is to be clear you’ll follow-up. This says to the person you’re talking to that you are in this discussion for the long haul. Be clear that you’d like to help them learn more about the services offered.

The SPIT Message Formula

·  Hello my name is [] and I’m from [] (establishes relevance)

·  I’m here to talk to you about [] (the ask)

·  Knowing of your interest in [], I thought you’d be interested as well (connection to policymaker’s interests)

·  This is important to the people I represent because [] (personal story / relevant local facts and figures)

·  That’s why we hope you’ll [] (the ask again)

·  I’d like to follow-up by [] (persistence ideas)

·  May I have the contact information for relevant people in your office?

Building Coalitions

One key role advocates can play is to gather a variety of groups to the cause. In other words, you’ll want to think about building a larger coalition in support of housing issues in your community.

Why have coalitions? Coalitions have a number of uses, including:

·  They often help you have wider-access to opinion leaders, because you have more people involved representing more communities

·  You will have an increased ability to frame the message (and hence have it heard). In other words, coalition members with a different area of expertise (for example, the economic or environmental benefits of an issue), can deliver those message with increased credibility.

·  They can help in spreading the pain and effort of the campaign. If utilized properly, many hands can get the job done faster.

Finding Coalition Partners

People often want to make coalition building a complex process. Really, though, it’s about taking a look around and finding potentially likeminded groups or organizations that might have an interest in supporting housing issues. Some tried and true methods for identifying potential coalition partners include:

·  Thinking through who benefits from your programs

·  Looking in the local yellow pages

·  Searching on your favorite search engine

·  Networking with a leading organizations in the community, such as the Chamber of Commerce

·  Asking your colleagues, employees and friends

·  Brainstorming with your volunteers and others

Use the following worksheet to come up with a list. Just put down everyone who you think might be interested. Obviously you’re not going to approach every group you come up with, but now is not the time to dismiss any ideas. Just come up with a long list that you will edit later.