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 Tucson and Pima County, 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 Tucson 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
- We support policies that protect and strengthen neighborhoods and enable communities to thrive
- Supporting property tax assistance for homeowners to ensure homes stay affordable long term
- Expanding resources for home repair, home modification and weatherization assistance.
- Supporting local decision-making processes to ensure that residents have a meaningful voice in community development.
- Establishing and expanding state housing tax credits.
- Investing in homebuyer counseling and financial education.
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 @HabitatTucson and use the hashtag #CostofHome!
- 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.
[mk_image src=”https://habitattucson.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cost-of-home-720-smaller.jpg” image_size=”large”]Families all across the United States are paying too high a price to cover the cost of home.
Rent and homeownership costs are skyrocketing, while wages are not keeping pace. Far too often, families struggle to make ends meet. Everywhere you look – in cities, suburbs, rural areas – the stability that home should bring remains out of reach for far too many families.At Habitat for Humanity Tucson, we know that a family should never have to spend more than 30% of their income on a home. But consider that today nearly 19 million U.S. households pay half or more of their income on a place to live. 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.[mk_image src=”https://habitattucson.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ribbon-house-square.png” image_size=”full”][mk_image src=”https://habitattucson.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/healthy-food.png” image_size=”full”][mk_image src=”https://habitattucson.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/health-care.png” image_size=”full”]Safe homes. Nutritious food. Health care. Access to good schools. Reliable transportation. Which would you choose?
Your home shouldn’t cost you anywhere near half your paycheck.
Home shouldn’t cost you your health.
Home shouldn’t cost you your kids’ education. When the cost of home is your family’s future, the cost is too high.
When the cost of home is any family's future, that's something none of us can afford.
[mk_image src=”https://habitattucson.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/cohbanner_habitattucson.png” image_size=”large”]Learn More