This webinar focused on nonpartisan activities, including candidate questionnaires and candidate forums, to engage candidates and educate voters about their stances on low-income housing. The saved chat can be found here and the transcript can be found here. The webinar recording and slideshow can be found below. 

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Arianna Bankler-Jukes, advocacy manager and organizer at Southern California Assocation of Nonprofit Housing (SCANPH), discussed the process of organizing and hosting a nonpartisan, tenant-led candidate forum. Arianna spoke to the importance of gaining resident buy-in, brainstorming questions collaboratively, creating opportunities for resident participation at the event, and compensating residents for their contributions. Madeleine Hammerlund, housing campaign organizer, and Brian Muhs, communications and engagement associate, at MHP, presented on MHP's nonpartisan candidate questionnaires as a tool to ensure that candidates understand Minnesotans' housing challenges and that voters understand candidates' stances on housing solutions. Madeleine and Brian walked through the process of developing a questionnaire, tracking and coordinating candidate outreach, encouraging candidate participation on social media, and distributing the responses to voters. Kaya Laywell, housing policy analyst at NLIHC, discussed the National Tenants' Bill of Rights (NTBOR) and its potential use as a candidate engagement tool. For example, an organization seeking to distribute a nonpartisan candidate questionnaire or host a nonpartisan candidate forum could use the pillars of the to develop the questions. ​

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The following resources were shared on the call:

• MHP candidate resource page: https://mhponline.org/2024-candidate-housing-questionnaire/

• National Tenants Bill of Rights resources: https://nlihc.org/national-tenants-bill-rights

• Endorse the National Tenants Bill of Rights here: https://tinyurl.com/TBOR-Endorse

• Our Homes, Our Votes candidate engagement resources: https://www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org/candidate-engagement

• Preview the full webinar series agenda and find archived webinars: https://www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org/webinars-2024

• Subscribe to NLIHC email list: https://nlihc.org/sign-receive-nlihc-emails

• Become an affiliate: https://www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org/affiliates

• TurboVote: https://ourhomes.turbovote.org/?r=webinars

• Our Homes, Our Votes resource library: https://www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org/resources

• Become a National Voter Registration Day partner: https://nationalvoterregistrationday.org/2024-partner-sign-up/?partner=nlihc24&source24=pp 

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The next Our Homes, Our Votes webinar, “Celebrating the Civic Holidays,” will take place on Tuesday, September 3, at 2:30pm ET. Register for the webinar series here.

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