Irene Basloe Saraf AM 1995

“It’s very exciting to be able to be doing social justice work on an issue that I care so much about and that I also find intellectually fascinating,” says Irene Basloe Saraf, of her work with National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) in Washington, D.C.

Basloe Saraf first realized that public policy might be for her when she was working on her senior thesis in the humanities at Yale University. Emerging from a long stint in the library working on an archival project, she came across a protest. She heard the excitement in the voices of the protesters, and she realized then that she didn’t want to spend her life engaged in the past. “I want to be engaged in the now,” she says.

Urban poverty captured her attention at the Harris School, and pursuing this interest brought Basloe Saraf to NLIHC where she has been able to analyze, articulate, and advocate policies that affect poor people in this country. It is the combination of policy analysis and advocacy that has made her work so rewarding.

“The first couple of times I went to Capitol Hill, talking about the importance of housing, I kept thinking, this is amazing. It’s exactly what I wanted to be doing—to have the chance to talk about housing policy and explain why it’s so important to work for social justice in America.”

Basloe Saraf began her career with NLIHC as Legislative Director, working closely with staff on Capitol Hill to influence legislation and policy on low-income housing. After relocating to Seattle, she took on a different set of tasks, including working with the organization’s state housing coalition partners around the country and drafting and editing housing policy publications for NLIHC.

“Having begun my career in housing policy advocacy at a state-level housing coalition here in Washington State, it has been very exciting to facilitate the efforts of state housing coalitions to influence federal housing policy,” she says.

Basloe Saraf also edits NLIHC’s biannual NIMBY Report, which examines attitudes about low-income housing in communities. “Even if there were enough money available to build all the affordable housing needed, we will still have to contend with misperceptions about that housing, its quality, and its residents.”

With the impending birth of her first child, Basloe Saraf has moved to a consultant role with the coalition and plans to search for a new policy position in Seattle after her maternity leave.