Endorsements
The following people have endorsed the work of the New England Labor Housing Initiative:
“Solving Maine’s housing challenges requires a new approach. Workers should be at the table, and labor must be included in solutions to this crisis. I’m excited to see the New England Labor Housing Initiative established to help lead this important work.”
-Shenna Bellows, Maine Secretary of State
“The scale of the housing crisis demands bold and visionary thinking. Just as labor is leaning into pro-worker solutions to the climate crisis, we can and must do the same for housing, which touches the lives of everyone one of our members and working class communities across the region. We look forward to partnering with the New England Labor Housing Initiative and seeing it succeed.”
-Francis Eanes, Executive Director of the Maine Labor Climate Council
"Maine currently faces an unprecedented housing crisis, the most common solutions to which have proved inadequate. The New England Labor Housing Initiative brings a fresh perspective to addressing the housing crisis, one with workers and labor unions at its heart. This is badly needed and we are proud to be working with this initiative."
-Amy Halstead, Co-Director, Maine People's Alliance
"The housing crisis is a grave risk to America's middle and working classes. Millions of workers, especially workers who don't have unions, are paid too little to afford housing in their region. The residential construction industry makes matters worse by too often building non-union. Unions can help lead the fight for more affordable, union-built housing so that the people who build the homes can afford to buy them. That is why I agreed to join the New England Labor Housing Initiative's advisory board. With a focus on building worker power as well as housing and job opportunities for the unhoused, this initiative can experiment, propose innovative policies, and change how we think about solving the housing crisis in a sustainable way for working people."
-Seth Harris, Director, Initiative on Labor and Economic Justice at Northeastern University’s Burnes Center for Social Change, Former Acting US Secretary of Labor, Former Labor Advisor for President Biden
"Maine has a big housing problem, which hits working class people the hardest. And the policies pursued thus far have proved insufficient in solving it. It is time for a new vision, and labor unions must be central in developing it. That is why I am proud to support the New England Labor Housing Initiative. By working with the labor movement, the Initiative will propose pro-worker solutions to this crisis. Jason Moyer-Lee, the Initiative's director, has a track record of developing policies that put workers first. I have no doubt he will continue to do that in this new role."
-Troy Jackson, former President of the Maine Senate
"At the UMass Boston Labor Resource Center, our staff, students, and community partners know all too well how the high cost of housing and the demonization of unhoused people hurts working people and undermines workers' power all across New England. We welcome the creation of the New England Labor Housing Initiative and the opportunity to fight for the homes and stability working people deserve. "
-Nick Juravich, Assistant Professor, History and Labor and Labor Studies; Associate Director, Labor Resource Center, UMass Boston
"This initiative addresses some of the most pressing issues of today— labor and housing. The Labor Center at UMass, Amherst is thrilled to partner with The New England Labor Housing Initiative."
-Jasmine Kerrissey, Director, Labor Center at University of Massachusetts Amherst
“There isn’t enough housing for workers, especially in New England. We need to build more housing and it should be done with union labor. I welcome the creation of the New England Labor Housing Initiative to focus on these issues. I will be working with the Initiative throughout Northern New England and am confident we will be able to move the needle.”
-John Leavitt, Regional Manager, North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC)
"Housing is one of the single greatest challenges workers face today and no one union or organization can fix it alone. For this reason we're excited to see the New England Labor Housing Initiative bring the movement together to work for real solutions for our members and all working families."
-Alec Maybarduk, Executive Director, Maine Service Employees Association, SEIU 1989
“The New England Labor Housing Initiative is arriving at the right place at the right time. New England’s housing crisis is severe and labor unions must be part of the solution. We look forward to working with the Initiative to find pro-worker solutions to the crisis.”
-Cynthia Phinney, President, Maine AFL-CIO
“Maine has been slammed by an out-of-control housing crisis and low paid workers are feeling the brunt of it. We need pro-worker, pro-union solutions to the problem. The New England Labor Housing Initiative will provide a welcome focus on this and I look forward to working with them as they get going.”
-Grant Provost, Vice President, Maine AFL-CIO; Recording Secretary, Maine State Building & Construction Trades Council; Business Agent/Industry Analyst, Ironworkers Local 7
"The New England Labor Housing Initiative brings to mind the many fruitful collaborations between unions and housing advocates over the years, none so much as the Labor Housing Conference led by Catherine Bauer during the Great Depression. Similar to the LHC, this new initiative proposes the expansion of well-paying union jobs and high quality shelter during another extreme moment in the seemingly permanent American housing crisis."
–Professor Gail Radford, University at Buffalo, author of Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era
“Jason Moyer-Lee is a brilliant writer and strategist. There is a workforce shortage contributing to higher costs of affordable housing. And there is a missing path for people experiencing poverty and homelessness to higher paying jobs and careers. I’m glad Jason is focusing our minds on combined solutions. At a time when people are falling into homelessness due to lack of affordable housing, creating stable higher paying jobs must be part of the equation.”
-Cullen Ryan, Executive Director, Community Housing of Maine
“Let's be clear: neither policymakers nor developers build affordable housing; actual construction workers do. We will never solve the housing crisis if we perpetuate policies that put profits and politics over people, and we're never going to truly address affordability if we can't bring ourselves to use 'lower costs' and 'higher wages' in the same sentence. That's why the partnership between Maine's Building Trades Unions and the New England Labor Housing Initiative is so important. By collaborating to identify holistic solutions, we can address this critical issue and ensure we have a well-compensated, skilled and sustainable union workforce to do it. I look forward to our work together. Those who support "the way we've always done it" should not.”
-Jason J. Shedlock, President, Maine State Building & Construction Trades Council
"No two issues are more central to the future well-being of working-class peoples in the Northeast and across the United States than labor and housing. Improving wages, hours, and working conditions can only be complemented by developing for safe, secure, and affordable housing—as all working people deserve a decent quality of life in their working and home lives. When affordable housing is built with good, union wages and labor and workers’ organizations fight for affordable housing for their members and community members the entire working-class and society benefits. The New England Labor Housing Initiative is the initiative we need now and Dr. Jason Moyer-Lee is the person to lead it.”
-Dr. Kevin Van Meter, Dr. Charles A. Scontras Center for Labor and Community Education at the University of Southern Maine
"It is clear and evident that Housing is a labor - a union issue. We the workers must be able to live where we work and us members in construction unions like my own are in the unique position to do something about this crisis. Unions must be the spear head in building affordable housing for the paycheck we bring home to our family, for the work for our membership and the good of the great Maine Community. Launching the New England Labor Housing Initiative is one of the most exciting new developments in the Labor Movement. I look forward to working closely with them."
-Representative Kilton Webb, District 98, Maine House of Representatives; Organizer, IBEW Local 567; Vice President, Western Maine Labor Council
"The major cause of homelessness is poverty. We have to think about creating economic opportunities for people trapped in low wage jobs. This is how we will make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. The New England Labor Housing Initiative is leaning into cross sector collaboration and it is exactly what's needed to address an intractable problem like homelessness."
-Dr. Katie Spencer White, President/CEO at Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter & Services; Lecturer at the Roux Institute, Northeastern University
“Labor unions have been at the heart of solving many of America's problems. They have addressed low wages, income inequality, labor exploitation, and created decent jobs with dignity. It is right that they also play a central role in addressing the severe housing crisis in which we find ourselves. That is why the creation of the New England Labor Housing Initiative is such an important development and we are excited to work with them.”
- Patrick Wynne, President, Central Maine Labor Council
