In Pennsylvania, the gap between housing costs and what people can afford keeps widening. For many, the stability necessities like housing provide is simply getting harder to hold onto. The Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania is a dedicated team working with a diverse coalition of partners across the state to push that reality in a different direction, fighting for policies that expand affordable housing and keep people in their homes.
The Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania’s advocacy work grows out of a simple but powerful belief: people should have a voice in the decisions that shape their housing. The policies that determine funding, zoning, and tenant protections are set by elected officials, and those decisions directly affect how people can find, keep, or lose housing.
When people connect the dots between their own experiences and the power of participation, the results speak for themselves. In one election cycle, 83% of the people engaged through the Housing Alliance’s voter initiative turned out to vote. That’s far above typical turnout rates among low-income voters, which hover just above 50%.
That huge jump in turnout came from working through the networks they already had in place. The Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania convenes a statewide network made up of housing providers, community groups, and local partners across the state. Those partners are the ones interacting directly with residents, and because they’ve established relationships and trust, the strategy focuses on building civic engagement into those existing interactions.
More often than not, that looks simple: a housing provider adds voter registration materials to a welcome kit when someone moves into a new home; a tenant meeting includes time to check registration or sign up; election information gets shared alongside routine updates.
“They live there now. They’re part of the community. They get to have a say in who represents them.”
Most importantly, this approach reflects the reality of their work. Housing policy is always shifting, and funding is never guaranteed. In a crowded policy environment, housing priorities can get pushed aside unless communities speak up.
For over a decade, the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania had encouraged their partners to do voter engagement, but they wanted a clearer way to track what was happening and understand the impact, which led them to partner with Nonprofit VOTE back in 2022. With tools to track voter contacts and engagement, they were able to sharpen their approach and focus their efforts for maximum impact in their communities.
“Being able to track those voter contacts helped us think more strategically about how we do this work.”
That shift made it easier to lean into what was already working. Local partners—property managers, service providers, community organizations—became the center of the strategy. When those trusted messengers incorporated accessible entry points for civic participation, people showed up.
It also gave the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania something just as important as turnout: proof. They could point to real, concrete numbers that demonstrated the efficacy of their approach. This data allows them to make the case that civic engagement belongs alongside housing advocacy to their communities and organization stakeholders.
“As nonprofits, the vast majority of us are reliant on public resources—and those who engage get to have a better say in the conversation and are more likely to get invited to have a seat at the table.”
At a time of intense competition for resources, demonstrated impact matters. Housing programs and residents are under pressure, and elected officials are making consequential decisions about what gets funded—and what doesn’t—every year, at every level. As the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania has shown, when more people show up and participate, those decisions are more inclusive of the needs of all Pennsylvanians.
