Access to safe, decent, and affordable rental and homeownership housing is essential for the health and economic well-being of families. We need strategies to fight homelessness and housing instability, which threaten family health, safety, employment, and educational outcomes. We need to invest in affordable rental housing, so that high rent burdens don’t impede a family’s ability to pay for essential expenses or establish savings to support longer-term goals like education and retirement. And we must open up homeownership opportunities for families living on low and moderate incomes, so that they can build wealth for themselves and their children.
All people need safe, decent, and affordable housing, yet there is not a single state, county, or metropolitan area in the U.S. where a minimum-wage worker can afford a modest two-bedroom rental without spending more than 30 percent of their income in rent.
The Fair Housing Act, which was born out of our nation’s civil rights movement, requires our country to ensure that all Americans have equal access to housing.
Local communities need the full array of affordable housing options and services to prevent people from experiencing homelessness and to provide housing options when homelessness occurs.
Our nation needs to enact policies that increase opportunities for all Americans to achieve affordable and sustainable homeownership.