Twenty-seven bills involving marriage and family status were pending in Congress in June 2013. Track the status of these bills at Govtrack.us.

Read a Nov. 8. 2012, article from Religion News Service, posted by the Huffington Post, about gay marriage in the 2012 elections. Voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington state voted in favor of measures legalizing gay marriage. The 2012 election brought the total number of states what allow same-sex marriage to nine.

An August 10, 2011 report from the Brookings Institution details the growing “instability” of family life among young adult couple who have finished high school but do not have a four-year college degree.

CATCH is a partnership among the city of Boise, Idaho; 12 local congregations; and the business community to provide long-term housing and supportive services to the area’s homeless population. Each participating congregation sponsors a homeless family’s housing for six months or a year; CATCH also is developing a 10-year plan to address homelessness.

Orange County Congregation Community Organization lobbied the city of Anaheim to include affordable housing in a large new housing development.

Shalom Ecumenical Center-Affordable Housing builds affordable housing for the elderly and disabled in Kennewick, Wash. SEC is a project of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Richland Lutheran Church and Lord of Life Lutheran Church, all in Richland, Wash.

EAH develops, manages and promotes affordable housing in California and Hawaii. Originally named the Ecumenical Association for Housing, it has developed, acquired or renovated more than 5,000 units of affordable housing since its founding in 1968. It has won dozens of awards and has a staff of 350.

Norman Henry is president and executive director of Builders of Hope Community Development Corp., which builds affordable housing in west Dallas.

Leslie Strnisha is director of program and evaluation at the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland in Ohio, where she works on the foundation’s affordable housing initiatives. They include two projects where affordable housing is linked with comprehensive services.