Housing Affordability Program

The purpose of the Housing Affordability Program (HAP) is to provide advocacy support and resources to NAA affiliates to address policies that negatively impact the rental housing industry. Specifically, the HAP is intended to help the industry respond to legislative, regulatory and ballot initiatives that inhibit a housing provider’s ability to create, operate, and maintain opportunities for a diversity of their residents.  

Additionally, projects supported by the HAP become part of an information repository for the use and benefit of the entire NAA affiliate network. The resulting knowledge and experience gained by successive efforts serve as a model for affiliate planning, budgeting. and execution of similarly situated advocacy efforts. As such, applications are evaluated for their potential benefit to the affiliate network.  

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To aide the process, NAA created an “Advocacy Services Tool Box” that applicants can draw upon in preparing their application request (see summary of services). The nature and severity of issues faced by the rental housing industry continues to escalate, thereby necessitating the need for well-planned, comprehensive advocacy efforts. 

The following activities are NOT allowable under the HAP:  

• Policies that run contrary to NAA’s own policies; 

• Electioneering – political contributions or support of a political candidate; 

• Lobbying Expenses -As HAP is a one-time resource, it may not be used to supplement ongoing and recurring lobbying expenses;  

• Requests for funding over $100K; 

• Submitting more than one application in a 12-month period; 

• Payment to vendors outside of the NAA contracted HAP consultant; 

• Campaign services that are not listed in the HAP Toolbox; and 

• Any services already available through other NAA programs such as economic or market research.  

• Additionally, any HAP dollars unsed after six months from the last date of use will be returned to the HAP fund and applicant may apply again in accordance with all other HAP rules.

Application and Approval Process 

1. NAA Staff – Before the application even begins, a call with NAA staff/HAP team is scheduled to discuss affiliate needs, NAA resources, and overall campaign strategy. The draft application is then submitted to NAA staff for preliminary feedback regarding the application’s completeness, merit, and presentation. 

2. ASAC/Leg Joint Committee – Applications are reviewed by the 20 member Joint Committee consisting of ten members of the Affiliate Staff Advisory Committee and ten members of the Legislative Committee. The Joint Committee can recommend changes to the application to fulfill program goals and/or vote on forwarding the application for final approval. The applicant is required to attend this meeting.

3. Board of Directors/Executive Committee – Applications forwarded with approval to the Board of Directors are heard and voted on for final approval or denial. In cases where the application is time-sensitive the Executive Committee may hear the application and vote accordingly.  The applicant is NOT required to attend this meeting.

Follow-up and Reporting 

The successful applicant is solely responsible for any and all local, state or federal reporting requirements which may apply as a result of receiving HAP support.  In addition, the successful applicant agrees to provide all relevant information that may be needed for NAA to comply with any reporting requirements that may apply with distributing HAP resources. 

All successful applicants agree to provide the following: 

• Planning – Work with NAA staff to provide detailed advocacy plan with supporting strategic analysis, tactics, budget and timeline;

• Research – Provide any available detailed research (i.e. quantitative polling and qualitative focus groups) used to drive advocacy efforts;

• Execution – Provide NAA Legislative Committee with regular briefings detailing the progress of the project. Regularity will be commensurate to length of campaign; and  

• Postmortem – Work with NAA to deliver comprehensive report that can be used by the greater affiliate network. 

Questions

Any questions regarding the Housing Affordability Program guidelines or application process can be directed to acapone@naahq.org 

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