Today in Spokane, one in four families pay half or more of their income on their rent or mortgage, often choosing between paying for housing or nutritious food, reliable transportation or healthcare needs. That is unacceptable.
Together with Habitat for Humanity International, Habitat-Spokane has committed to the five-year Cost of Home campaign. We will improve home affordability for individuals by influencing policy and system changes at the federal, state and local levels focused on supply and preservation, access to credit, land use, and communities of opportunity. Our partners, volunteers and community members across the country will help us find the solutions and create the policies that will allow 10 million individuals to meet their most basic needs.
Together, we can make the cost of home something we all can afford.
We know the complexities that surround the cost of home. We also know the disparate impact it has on BIPOC communities who are already suffering as a result of systemic racism that has all too often played out in housing policy. Families who have suffered from redlining and racial inequality. 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.
Habitat-Spokane will continue to advocate to policymakers locally, and at all levels of government, to ensure that every family — no matter the color of their skin, where they live or how much money they earn — can buy a home and build the foundation for a stable, healthy future. Now more than ever, we must work together to make the #CostOfHome something we all can afford.