The Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights is a national coalition of housing rights organizations and community groups working around the country that is calling on the national government to reclaim its historic commitment to provide adequate housing for everyone. The Campaign has been meeting with U.S. Representative Maxine Waters' office (D-California) and requesting that she, as chair of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, conduct congressional field hearings in select cities to hear directly from residents the impact failed federal housing policies has on their lives, and to discuss viable solutions to this crisis. We have held hearings in Los Angeles, and are working towards having hearings in Chicago, Minneapolis, New Orleans and New York, with a culminating hearing in Washington, D.C., as a demonstration of the breadth and extent of this national crisis. The hearings will include testimony from directly impacted community members and experts on issues ranging from public housing demolitions, the under-funding of Section 8 and rising homelessness.

As poor and low income communities are disproportionately impacted by the national foreclosure and credit crises, we hope the hearings will bring needed attention to the plight facing these communities. The hearings will be aimed at highlighting the crisis in housing facing poor communities, moving forward progressive legislation in this area, and advancing the notion of a human right to housing within the United States.

The Campaign's main website is at http://restorehousingrights.org/, but the below links include some additional information from the field hearings and related activities.