Cost of Home
Everyone should be able to afford the cost of home.
To be considered "affordable," housing expenses must be less than 30 percent of a family's household income. In the United States, 19 million families spend half or even more of their income on housing costs, leaving little left over for other necessary expenses. Here in Wake and Johnston counties, one in four families must choose between spending money on a safe place to live and spending money on groceries, health care, education, or reliable transportation. Which would you choose?
Too many families have to make these choices, and as a community, we can't afford to let that happen.
That's why Habitat Wake is joining with hundreds of local Habitat organizations across the country to launch our first national advocacy campaign: Cost of Home.
Our Priorities:
- Expanding down payment assistance to help people purchase affordable homes of their own
- Increasing local funding for affordable housing
- Prioritizing planning decisions that align bus routes and public transportation with affordable housing
- Supporting property tax assistance for homeowners to ensure homes stay affordable long term
What You Can Do:
- Download our Cost of Home statement signs
- Share on social. Post a photo of yourself holding one of our signs or write-ins and tag us! Here's some sample social media messaging.
- Share around town. Post our statement signs in your office, on the coffee shop bulletin board, in your gym's locker room. Forward this page to your friends and ask them to do the same. Help us spread the word.
- Write or call your local legislators. We've drawn up a sample letter template, and you can find your local representative's contact info here.