Policy & Legislation
Communications Campaign Holds Trainings Throughout CA:
Download Toolkit from Housing CA Website!
September 16, 2008
The California Communications Campaign for Affordable Homes successfully completed a round of trainings for affordable-home advocates. The initial round of trainings were held in Sacramento, Fresno, San Francisco, Irvine, Los Angeles, and San Diego. All the training materials are now available on Housing CA's website in our new Communications Campaign Toolkit! Learn more about the Communications Campaign in our two-page overview.
What People Already Know and Believe About Home Affordability
Attendees heard from ActionMedia's Michael Goldberg, who reminds advocates that everyone processes information in terms of what they already know and believe. Results of focus groups and other research around the country shows that people do NOT see home affordability as a "social" issue, but rather as a "consumer" issue, so in order to build more support and political will, we must talk about home affordability in the context of a consumer issue -- we must talk about the broken housing market.
Eliminate "Affordable Housing" from Your Vocabulary!
Research conducted in California as part of this campaign, combined with other research done throughout the country, shows that the phrase "affordable housing" conjures up negative images for most people -- images of failed, federal housing policies, images of failed public housing developments (e.g. Chicago's Cabrini Green, which doesn't even exist anymore).
Because stirring up this "negative connotation" is counter-productive to our efforts to get more support for the work we do, Housing CA and many of its partners have already committed to removing "affordable housing" as part of our vocabulary. Rather than use the phrase sometimes (within our own community) and not others (outside our community), we have committed to eliminating the phrase all together. Now we will "say what we mean," talking about "places to live that everyone can afford," or, when necessary, "affordable homes."
We will still use "housing" when appropriate (e.g. when referring to the "housing market," or "housing policy"), and we will still talk about making sure places to live are "affordable." It's just the two words together that we want to avoid. Also, when we're talking about people, we want to use the term "home," because nobody sees themselves as living in "housing." Whether a person lives in an apartment, a duplex, or a single-family house, they refer to it as "home."
DO Talk About . . .
- The fact that California's housing market is broken.
- How the broken housing market is affecting people at all income levels.
- The fact that we need to stabilize the market.
- Children needing the opportunity to succeed in school and life, and how this starts with having a stable home.
- The need to help vulnerable populations.
We ask you to visit our Communications Campaign Toolkit and:
- Incorporate the Talking Points and broken marketplace story into your website, collateral, handouts, and conversations.
- Load any/all of the toolkit materials to your website.
- Link to the toolkit items in your next e-newsletter; pass them out at your next community meeting; share them with your colleagues, friends, and family.
The more we get people talking about the broken housing market, how it affects us all, the benefits of building more affordable places to live, and that government is part of the solution, the stronger the political will to fix the broken market. When we build more safe, decent places to live that everyone can afford, we ALL win!
Connecting the Benefits of Affordable Homes to Other Issues People Care About
We know people care about business and the economy, schools/education, public safety, health, and the environment. So, we've created a document that ties the benefits of affordable homes to other top concerns in Home: The Foundation for Life. (This document is also being designed as a brochure that you will be able to download. We'll let you know when it's available on the Housing CA website.) You won't always be able to get people to care about home affordability as much as you do, but you can help people see how making sure everyone has a safe, decent place to live can benefit the issues they already care about!
Next Steps for the Communications Campaign
Housing CA's Outreach and Program Manager Megan Norris is working with Regional Captains throughout California to finalize the Outreach Teams who will meet with targeted legislators this fall. If you are interested in becoming a more active part of the Communications Campaign, please contact Megan or complete our Communications Campaign Contact Sheet and fax it to: 916.447.1900.
Contact: Karen Naungayan, (916) 447-0503 x 111 or .
