Alliance for Housing Justice is a proud endorser of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & Senator Tina Smith's Homes Act.
On September 18th, 2024, Alliance for Housing Justice's Project Manager, Andreina Kniss joined the congresswomen in DC for the bill's introduction. Below are her remarks:
Remarks by Project Manager Andreina Kniss on the Occasion of Rep. AOC & Sen. Tina Smith's Bill Introduction
"I'll start off with a truth that everyone in this room knows: Every displacing rent increase, every eviction, every person living in a tent -- it is all preventable.
The solution is social housing.
Similar to the Congresswoman I am the daughter of a farm worker, now housekeeper. I was raised in housing not fit for any human, let alone a family. In a slum trailer park in a small travel trailer with no electricity or running water. It was all she could afford.
Our lives changed forever the day she got the call that a public housing unit was available. Every person in need in America deserves that phone call.
Today marks an exciting and critical moment for housing justice in our country. Representative. Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Smith’s Homes Act would transform the way we approach housing in America.
On behalf of the Alliance for Housing Justice — a coalition of national policy, organizing and legal organizations working together to move federal policy towards housing justice – including the Center for Popular Democracy and Housing Justice for All New York— I'm proud to offer our full support.
For far too long, housing has been treated as a commodity, driving up costs and putting profits over people. This bill will shift that reality. It provides a bold solution to the housing crisis by promoting the development of social housing—housing that is publicly owned, permanently affordable, and serves the needs of low- and middle-income families. It insists that housing is a human right, not an investment instrument.
We are deeply grateful to Representative Ocasio-Cortez for her leadership but we know that there is a movement behind this bill — a movement of tenants, organizers, advocates — from New York and all over the country, that have been working tirelessly to build the partnerships and the power to make the world we need possible.
From our partners in North Carolina trying to turn slum apartments into tenant owned cooperatives, to our land trust colleagues in California acquiring their first buildings -- we feel the demand for change and see the change coming. It's going to come to HUD and it's going to come to Congress because of organizers like this.
The Alliance for Housing Justice is committed to building a world where everyone has a place to call home — no exceptions.
This bill aligns perfectly with our mission. It will not only expand access to affordable homes but also prioritize those most affected by the housing crisis—working families, communities of color, and vulnerable populations who have been pushed to the margins for too long.
We thank Rep Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Smith and all the co-sponsors who have championed this initiative and urge Congress to move quickly to pass this bill. It’s time to step forward and provide solutions that address the housing crisis at its core.
Let’s stand together, fight for justice, and make housing for all a reality.
Thank you."
Everyone deserves affordable homes.
That’s why we’ve endorsed The Homes Act.
Let’s build massive amounts of beautiful, permanently affordable housing while creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying union jobs.
