Sheila Crowley

Sheila Crowley is the president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, where she heads a membership organization that is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that assures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition leads the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign, which has been endorsed by over 5,700 organizations across the country. The campaign achieved a major success in July 2008 when legislation was enacted to establish the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. At least 75% of NHTF dollars must be used to build or preserve rental housing that is affordable to the lowest income households in the U.S. The NHTF Campaign is now working to secure dedicated revenue sources for the NHTF of at least $5 billion annually.

NLIHC also led the campaign to gain groundbreaking federal protections for renters who live in properties that are foreclosed upon.

Since Hurricane Katrina hit, NLIHC has led an ad hoc coalition of national and Gulf Coast housing organizations to advocate on behalf of low income people displaced by the 2005 hurricanes to assure sufficient housing is rebuilt at affordable costs to allow all people who want to return.

NLIHC’s annual flagship publication, Out of Reach, analyzes the mismatch between incomes and rents in every jurisdiction in the United States, and produces the frequently cited measure of housing unaffordability, the housing wage. NLIHC’s weekly review of federal housing policy is considered a must-read by all low income housing advocates.

Dr. Crowley joined the staff of the National Low Income Housing Coalition in December 1998, after two decades in Richmond, Virginia in organizational leadership, direct service, policy advocacy, and scholarship. She is a social worker with a bachelor’s (1976), master’s (1978), and Ph.D. (1998) from the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has worked in staff, board, and consulting roles with organizations that focus on homeless services, family housing, AIDS housing, housing for people with disabilities, and senior housing. She is an adjunct faculty member for the VCU School of Social Work and for George Mason University Department of Social Work, teaching social policy, social justice, policy advocacy, and community and organizational practice.

She was the 1996-97 Social Work Congressional Fellow, where she served on the Democratic staff of the Housing Subcommittee of the United States Senate Banking Committee. From 1984-1992, she was the Executive Director of The Daily Planet, a multipurpose homeless service and advocacy organization in Richmond. She was the founding director in 1979 of the YWCA Women’s Advocacy Program in Richmond, the shelter and service program for battered women and their children. She is a founding member of the Virginians Against Domestic Violence, the Greater Richmond Coalition for the Homeless, and the Richmond Better Housing Coalition.

She is married to Kent Willis, Executive Director of the ACLU of Virginia. They have two daughters and five grandchildren.