Voter Registration is Fundamental to Organizing

The National Housing Trust-Enterprise (NHT-E), in partnership with the League of Women Voters, launched a national non-partisan voter registration campaign to engage residents across its portfolio. The campaign involved mailings, automated phone calls, and onsite voter registration to encourage residents to vote in the upcoming 2016 election. Nearly 2,500 residents age 17 and above received at a minimum, six "contacts" in the form of mail, automated phone calls, and home visits to encourage registration.

Devin Tucker, NHT-E's Director of Community Development Programs, said that the non-partisan campaign is bigger than registration.  

"This is about helping residents develop 'high opportunity neighborhoods. Voting in its most basic form is about civic engagement and organizing," Tucker exclaims. "We'd very much like to continue the momentum around this effort in a way that would encourage residents to be involved and tuned-in to local issues - to specifically address investments related to schools, police service, or transportation."  

The nonpartisan campaign supported NHT-E residents across several states including Maryland, South Carolina and Florida.  Partners such as the League of Women Voters will work with NHT-E communities on Election Day to help residents with transportation to the polls. Tucker said that the initiative will be evaluated after the election to measure outcomes related to registration and voting.  

Tucker says that NHT-E property managers have a unique communication channel to individuals when it comes to encouraging civil engagement. "We believe that there are opportunities here to help place our residents in the driver's seat when it comes to local decision making. We are grateful to all of our partners supporting our civic engagement work."