On February 5th, the Ohio Lead Free Coalition hosted a lunch and learn event designed to promote a dialogue about the intersection between lead poisoning prevention, public health, and housing quality. The event emphasized the importance of cross-sector advocacy to advance public policy, and was attended by over 100 individuals, including housing developers, affordable housing advocates, public health officials, child health advocates, resident organizations, state housing officials, state health officials, and elected officials including the Ohio House of Representatives, the Ohio Senate, and locally elected officials representing the Cleveland City Council, Columbus City Council, Cuyahoga County Council and other local jurisdictions throughout Ohio.

Brief summary of the bills that were on the Pacific Northwest's office lead and support agenda this session and the status of each.

Maryland legislators, the Virginia General Assembly and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser are debating, considering and proposing housing affordability budgets this month.

The city of Detroit has announced a federally-funded Preservation Partnership with Enterprise and other local affordable housing non-profits. The partnership will seek to identify apartment buildings that have low rents and help them be redeveloped in a way that preserves the affordability and prevents displacement. Evelyn Zwiebach, Enterprise Detroit Director for State and Local Policy, urges all Presidential candidates to commit to robust federal funding for critical affordable housing programs.