Thank you to everyone who joined Monday's (6/13) Our Homes, Our Votes webinar: Registering Residents of Subsidized Housing and Community Members! 

Housing advocates, resident councils, tenant associations, and community organizations are eager to increase voter registration among new residents and other individuals who are eligible to vote. The most recent Our Homes, Our Votes webinar shared best practices for finding and registering these voters. Panelists discussed strategies for incorporating voter registration into day-to-day operations at libraries; identifying residences and neighborhoods with high numbers of eligible voters who are not yet registered; working with managers to reach low-income residents; and using the National Housing Preservation Database to build a map of properties to canvass.

Julie Ann Winkelstein, author of Libraries and Homelessness: An Action Guide, provided an overview of the role that libraries play in social justice work and how librarians are great partners in voter engagement. She highlighted examples of voter engagement work that takes place at libraries across the country.

Jenny Garmon, civic engagement specialist at the Kansas City Public Library, highlighted her role in supporting voter engagement. Jenny described many other core functions that the library plays in reaching individuals who are experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity—and how that work translates into supporting library patrons’ civic engagement.

Teresa Clark, deputy director of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, described her organization’s outreach to residents of affordable housing for a voter registration drive. Teresa described the strategies that worked in reaching the residents of affordable housing complexes, including building relationship with housing providers; working with tenant leaders; and reframing questions about voter registration.

Dan Emmanuel, senior research analyst at NLIHC, provided a detailed training on the National Housing Preservation Database to build a list of properties for voter outreach. This database is a research tool created by NLIHC and PAHRC for identifying federally subsidized housing. Dan provided a step-by-step walkthrough of how to download information and create a map of properties that can be used to plan canvassing efforts.