| Affordable Housing Movement Will Continue March Until We Reach Success For Immediate Release: May 4, 2021 From: Cincinnati Action for Housing Now |
| Today, we have taken big steps forward on our journey to housing justice. While we lost at the polls, we know we will eventually win. Our effort is not a marketing plan, run by a hired public relations firm. We are a movement of people who know every person in this city needs access to a home they can afford. Unlike a glossy marketing plan, a movement doesn’t end until we get where we need to be. Cincinnati Action for Housing Now is proud our campaign for Issue 3 put our need for affordable housing at the top of community conversation. Every candidate in the mayoral primary has said they believe we need to fund affordable housing development. Those who opposed us, said repeatedly they support affordable housing and will join us in our work to get it funded. City council candidates will have to choose if they stand with our movement to invest significant public city funds into affordable housing development every year. This positive talk about building affordable housing is good and is hard fought progress. But we will stay focused on action. Today is not the end of any road. Our voices are growing louder and our determination stronger. We will gather with our many people, our member organizations and our powerful endorsers. We will reach out to labor unions and other concerned organizations and invite them to join the affordable housing movement. We will evaluate our strategy, form next steps and continue pushing forward. We remain convinced that it is within the People of this city where the strength lies to finally make affordable housing development a significantly funded priority. We will not slow down. There simply is not enough time and people are too important to slow down. We cannot slow down because thousands of Cincinnati kids need a safe place to call home, seniors need to be able to stay in their neighborhoods, families need to not have to worry about paying the rent. Thousands of Cincinnatians agree. They passionately volunteered during a pandemic to make affordable housing a priority. We collected 9,541 signatures, in a time with no large community gatherings. We passed out flyers, knocked on doors, made phone calls, did interviews, wrote editorials, designed social media, text messaged our friends, organized spreadsheets, delivered yard signs and voted! To all who tirelessly volunteered with Cincinnati Action for Housing Now to get Issue 3 on the ballot, we thank you and ask that you stay in the family. To our powerful endorsers, we thank you for being in solidarity. To those who voted yes on Issue 3, we thank you, and hope you will choose to be involved in the next steps. You can stay connected through www.actionforhousingnow.com as well as on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and especially on our street corners, in our parks, on our stoops and in all of our neighborhoods. We are a movement of people. The time will come soon, when as a City, we will decide to invest significantly in affordable housing. It’s not today, but it is just around the corner. |
