Apartment Advocacy Tools

NMHC has produced a wide variety of advocacy tools and resources that NMHC members can use to promote rental housing as a desirable alternative to consumers and policy makers. 

Apartments. We Live Here.

This large-scale, multimedia campaign reflects extensive research, commissioned exclusively for NMHC and NAA, to quantify the economic impact of the apartment industry and its 35 million residents. This information is critical for highlighting the positive contributions apartments make to communities across the nation. In 2013, NMHC/NAA developed a suite of tools to help members be more effective in their business and advocacy efforts:

• The Trillion Dollar Apartment Industry. Available in print and digital format, you can really make an impression with this report by George Mason University’s Stephen S. Fuller, Ph.D., which quantifies the economic impact of the apartment industry and its residents on a national, state and select metro level.

• Apartments Work: The Policymaker’s Guide to Rental Housing. A quick, graphics-driven primer on how apartment communities are developed, built and operated, as well as all the public policies that affect our business along the way. The report will soon be available in print and digital versions.

• www.WeAreApartments.org. This highly interactive—and fun!—industry website will be the perfect place to send people to learn more about the industry, as well as get more specific information about the economic benefits of apartments in their state and local communities.

• Interactive maps. Part of the new industry website, this map feature allows users to get state-specific and select metro-level information on the economic contribution of and jobs supported by new apartment construction, ongoing apartment operations and apartment resident spending. Includes downloadable PDFs.

• Online economic impact calculator. ACE, or the Apartment Community Estimator, is a unique tool that allows users to estimate the dollars generated and jobs supported by the construction of a new community or operation of an existing community. Type in the number of units, click calculate and print out the results to take to your next meeting.

• Apartments Count digital presentation. This polished, interactive pocket presentation from Prezi summarizes the key takeaways from the economic impact report.

Pro-Apartment Advertising Campaign

• NMHC/NAA's newest advertising campaign,"Apartments Create Jobs," targets policy makers nationwide.  The six new ads highlight how the multifamily industry creates jobs at both a national and local level. In addition, the new ads show how the country’s changing demographics and lifestyle preferences strongly favor rental housing. Our message is if you want a vibrant, thriving 21st century community, you need to bring apartments into the mix. 
  
  
• NMHC has created a new brochure for members designed to give high-level facts, figures and information that make the case for the apartment industry to congress, policy makers and the general public. Featuring real life testimonials of apartment residents, the brochure debunks the myths about apartments, shows how apartments create jobs and that more and more renters choose the flexibility and mobility that apartment living provides.
  
  
• NMHC/NAA campaign, titled “Sometimes Living The Dream Means Rethinking It” can be used by NMHC/NAA members and apartment associations for local campaigns. The ad uses visuals to show the contrast between pedestrian-friendly apartment communities and suburban sprawl and American Dream is changing now that people realize housing is not a “can’t miss” investment.  Freed to choose housing that best suits their lifestyles, millions of Americans are picking apartments.  It calls on policymakers to advance a more balanced housing policy to ensure housing choice for everyone.  The ad and artwork are available at www.nmhc.org/goto/Rethinking.
  
  
• This six-ad campaign, titled “Because Not Every Home is a House,” can be used be used by NMHC/NAA members and apartment associations for local campaigns.  Camera-ready art of the ads in various sizes can be downloaded from this link.  Poster-size versions are also available suitable for hanging in corporate offices and leasing centers.

Consumer-Oriented Brochures

• Rent versus Buy.  This four-color brochure, Don’t Buy the Myths: Renting Can Be a Smart Investment, examines the most common financial misunderstandings about owning a house and gives consumers the information they need to counter all those well-meaning people who tell them that they need to buy a house. 
  
  
• The Risk of "Shadow Market" Rentals.  The foreclosure crisis has resulted in thousands of houses and condos being rented out by investors who cannot sell their properties and individuals who cannot afford their mortgages.  This brochure, Your Best Start to Renting Smart: Rent from the Pros promotes the financial benefits of renting, warns renters of the risks of renting from a private individual and highlights the benefits of choosing a professionally managed apartment.

Anti-NIMBYism/Barriers to Development Tools

• Freely-Available "Re-Thinking Density" PowerPoint Presentation.  This professionally produced PowerPoint presentation, titled A Plan for Tomorrow, was produced in collaboration with the Sierra Club and the Urban Land Institute to enhance its credibility.  It comes with a script, but is also customizable so firms can use local information to overcome local opposition to higher-density development. 
  
  It includes compelling visuals that clearly show how compact development can create vibrant neighborhoods.  And it shows how everyone can personally benefit from higher-density development—even those who live in single-family houses nearby.  A narrated DVD version is also available.
  
  
• Brochure: Higher-Density Development: Myth and Fact.  This publication, another joint effort between NMHC, the Urban Land Institute and the Sierra Club, debunks eight typical misconceptions about higher-density development, including fears of traffic congestion, public housing, crime and ugly high-rises, with research and examples of quality, compact developments. 
  
  
• Toolkit: Getting Density Right.  A collaborative effort between NMHC and the Urban Land Insitute, this book describes tools communities can use to promote compact development.  Includes case studies of eight successful communities.
  
  
• Brochure: Creating Successful Communities: A New Housing Paradigm.  Another four-color brochure refutes the lingering stereotypes that policymakers (and the public) sometimes have about apartments.  To help NMHC /NAA members successfully use the brochure in zoning battles and in advocacy efforts, it includes additional “talking points” and a direct mail letter.
  
  
• White Paper: Overcoming Opposition to Multifamily Rental Housing.  This White Paper was produced as part of a Harvard University Policy Summit on Rental Housing.  Identifies (and refutes) the most common arguments against apartments.  Also offers tactics and strategies to overcome opposition to specific apartment properties, including the five essential components of a successful outreach campaign.
  
  
• White Paper: From NIMBY to Good Neighbors.  This White Paper summarizes five national research studies that contradict the conventional wisdom that apartment properties often cause surrounding property values to decrease. 
  
  
• Brochure: The Case for Multifamily Housing.  This 20-page booklet, co-published with the Urban Land Institute, offers factual information on the advantages of higher density housing.  Copies are available from the ULI bookstore by calling 800/321-5011.

Balanced Housing Policy Advocacy Tools

• Freely-Available PowerPoint Presentation – A New Housing Policy: Imagine the Possibilities.  This professionally produced PowerPoint presentation and accompanying remarks uses facts and figures to make the case that America not only needs rental housing, it also wants it.  It documents the macro factors combining to make rental housing more important -- profound demographic and lifestyle shifts, growing environmental awareness and the need to accommodate population growth in a fiscally and environmentally sustainable manner.
  
  It shows the growing disconnect between our housing policy and our housing needs and outlines key steps necessary to move from the status quo to a more effective and responsible housing policy.
  
  
• White Paper: Pushing Back on Homeownership.  This NMHC/NAA White Paper summarizes credible third-party research that questions the wisdom of our nation’s aggressive homeownership incentives.
  
  
• Brochure: Toward a More Balanced Housing Policy.  This four-color NMHC/NAA brochure uses third-party testimonials and profiles of nontraditional apartment residents to educate policymakers about the importance of a balanced housing policy—one that includes rental housing as well as homeownership incentives.