Advocacy-Public Relations Materials

Advocacy Tools: Affordable Housing

• The Truth About Affordable Housing
  A PowerPoint presentation geared for a non-housing audience that explains who needs affordable housing, what it really looks like and addressing common (and unfounded) concerns about its development.

• Media Training Guide for Affordable Housing Advocates:
  Advocates: A practical resource for working with local and national print and broadcast media, with a staff of 2 or 20 to spread the word about affordable housing.

• Building Public Support for Affordable Housing: A Toolbox for California Officials
  Outlines strategies that local officials can adopt to help overcome NIMBYism and to promote affordable housing development. (July 2007)

Advocacy Tools: NIMBYism

• Free PowerPoint: Re-Thinking Density
  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 compact development.

• Toolkit: Getting Density Right
  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. (May 2008)

• Higher-Density Development: Myth and Fact
  his 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.

• White Paper: Overcoming Opposition to Multifamily Rental Housing
  his 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 Neighbor
  This White Paper summarizes five national research studies that contradict the conventional wisdom that apartment properties often cause surrounding property values to decrease.

• Pro-Apartment Advertising Campaign
  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. A CD is also available with different sizes of each ad. Poster-size versions are also available suitable for hanging in corporate offices and leasing centers.

• Brochure: Creating Successful Communities: A New Housing Paradigm
  A 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.

Advocacy Tools: Renting v. Owning

• Brochure: Don't Buy the Myths: Renting Can Be A Smart Investment
  This four-color brochure 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.

Research Reports, Case Studies and Other Resources

Related Organizations

• HousingPolicy.org
  Online guide to state and local housing policy developed by the Center for Housing Policy. This site provides information on a broad range of state and local housing policy tools, as well as guidance on how to put individual policies together into a comprehensive housing strategy.