Increasing the supply and preservation of affordable homes

As housing costs have risen, low-income families have faced increased risk of being squeezed out of the rental and homeownership housing markets. That’s why the Cost of Home campaign placed increasing the supply and preservation of affordable homes among its key areas of focus. 
 

map of the U.S. with blue dots

Check out our interactive map to see areas where local and state Habitat organizations successfully changed housing policies to increase the supply and preservation of affordable homes.

To supplement static or declining federal housing resources, local and state Habitat organizations have engaged in advocacy initiatives using various strategies to persuade their governments to raise new housing resources.

Strategies used to successfully increase the supply and preservation of affordable homes:

  • Creation of new dedicated funding for local and state housing trust funds.
  • Increase in general fund appropriations for housing.
  • Adoption of multiyear, general-obligation housing bonds.
  • Establishment and expansion of state housing tax credits.
  • Creation of new resources to support homes for those with the lowest incomes.
  • Expansion of the availability of housing vouchers to make more existing homes affordable.

“While we need federal funding, which we clearly do, the truth of the matter is that leadership has to come at the local level.” 

Henry Cisneros, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Our impact

Check out our solutions in action:

Join us

Though the Cost of Home campaign has concluded, the work continues.

Learn how you can add your voice as Habitat advocates for policies that will increase the production, preservation and accessibility of affordable homes.

  • Aerial view of houses in a neighborhood

    Discover the impact the Cost of Home campaign on improving home affordability: explore policy successes supported by local and state Habitat organizations, strategies for advocacy practitioners to effect policy change and a policy assessment report by the Urban Institute.

  • Woman with sticker that says, "I enrolled!"

    Achieving policy solutions in the four areas laid out by our Cost of Home campaign platform has enabled families to have greater access to homes they can afford — and to all the opportunities that follow.