Five years ago, Habitat set out to accelerate action on home affordability through the Cost of Home campaign, which ran from 2019-2024. Through this campaign, local and state Habitat for Humanity organizations, partners, volunteers and community members across the United States worked together so that 9.5+ million people could have access to an affordable home.

Check back in early October for an upcoming cumulative report on Cost of Home’s progress in changing housing policies and systems.

The Urban Institute examined Cost of Home policy successes and noted the transformation the campaign has led within the first four years of the campaign.

Why Cost of Home?

Families all across the United States are paying too high a price to cover the cost of home.

At Habitat, we know that a family should never have to spend more than 30% of their income on a home. Yet, 20.3 million households nearly 1 in 6 paid more than half their income on housing in 2021.

Everywhere you look — cities, suburbs, rural areas — the stability that home should bring remains out of reach for far too many families.

That is unacceptable.

Advocating for equitable land use across the U.S.

Habitat affiliates have successfully reshaped discriminatory land and zoning policies to create more affordable homes and more equitable opportunities in their communities. Watch our video to learn how Habitat works on housing advocacy every day to drive equity.

We know the complexities that surround the cost of home. We also know the struggle, stress and pain of far too many families in our communities. Families who have suffered from redlining, racial inequality and the housing disparities that follow.

Families who have worked hard and still come up short, not because of their own efforts, but because of systemic issues and an inequitable economy. And we know that those with the fewest resources are always the ones who are forced to make the hardest choices. 

Everyone deserves to build the foundation for a stable, healthy future for themselves and their families — no matter who they are, where they live or how much money they earn. 

Through our five-year Cost of Home campaign, we mobilized our local and state Habitat organizations, our partners, our volunteers and community members across the country to find the solutions and help create the policies that allowed 9.5 million people to meet their most basic needs.

 

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You can stay up to date on our latest advocacy efforts and how you can make an impact on the urgent need for affordable housing.

Advocating for equitable land use across the U.S.

Habitat affiliates are successfully reshaping discriminatory land and zoning policies to create more affordable homes and more equitable opportunities in their communities. Watch our video to learn how Habitat works on housing advocacy every day to drive equity.

Watch now

Strategies for housing advocates to effect policy change

Habitat funded the Urban Institute in 2023 to assess eight policy changes and conduct interviews with various stakeholders from the first four years of the Cost of Home campaign. Based on their findings, Urban Institute researchers found six key strategies for delivering policy and systems change at local, state and federal levels.

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Database of policy successes

Urban Institute developed a searchable database of the policy successes and systems changes influenced by local and state Habitat organizations in the first four years of the Cost of Home advocacy campaign.

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What is housing affordability?

Families across the United States are paying too high a price to cover the cost of home. Rents and homeownership costs are skyrocketing while wages are not keeping pace. Everyone should have enough money left over after paying rent or mortgage costs to cover life’s necessities.

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