Advocacy News

Families across the U.S. are paying too high a price to cover the cost of home.

Rent and homeownership costs are skyrocketing, but wages are not keeping pace. Too many families struggle to make ends meet. In cities, suburbs, and rural areas, the stability that home should bring remains out of reach for many families. 

At Habitat for Humanity, we know that a family should never have to spend more than 30% of their income on a home. But today, nearly 19 million U.S. households pay 1/2 or more of their income on a place to live.

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That is unacceptable.

That means that 1 in 6 families are denied the personal and economic stability that safe, decent and affordable housing provides. Instead, 1 in 6 families are forced to make impossible choices. Safe homes. Nutritious food on the table. Health care. Access to good schools. Reliable transportation.

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Now, as the economic impacts of COVID-19 continue to unfold, the number of families struggling to make ends meet is only growing. Housing policy is influenced by decades of systemic racism. Habitat's Cost of Home campaign calls for policymakers to acknowledge and address the well-documented historic patterns of racial discrimination in housing and land use policies — at all levels of government — that still impact the makeup and opportunities of our communities.