6 ways to advocate for affordable housing

Whether you’ve advocated before or are just getting started, you have the power to impact housing policies. Here are six overarching practices to keep in mind as you advocate for adequate, affordable housing.

No matter where you live — whether you’ve advocated before or are just getting started — you have the power to influence housing policies and solutions to create large scale impact.

And it’s a lot easier than you might think!

With Habitat for Humanity, you can add your much-needed voice to the work that’s enabling housing affordability in your community and those around the world.

Jump in — here are six overarching practices to keep in mind as you advocate for adequate, affordable housing.

1. Learn.

You don’t need to be an expert on housing, but it would benefit you to have a general understanding of your local housing issues, particularly as they pertain to the most underserved in your community.

Learn more about your community by following local news, signing up for relevant community newsletters, watching or attending meetings with elected officials, and following social media accounts that cover local issues.

2. Connect.

Start small. Reach out to your local representative or official by email, handwritten note or phone call. Simply introduce yourself and let them know that you care about adequate, affordable housing.

Introducing yourself to policymakers can be a powerful way to push housing higher up on their agenda.

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Join us in influencing housing policies to improve home affordability.

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3. Share.

Everyone has a relationship with housing, and it can be impactful to share why housing is important to you.

Share your housing story (what housing has meant to you or why you advocate for affordable housing) with friends, neighbors and local officials and invite them to share their story in return.

4. Join.

Find local organizations, like Habitat, already advocating for adequate, affordable housing in your community. Existing housing groups and coalitions can facilitate events, help shape policy priorities and connect you with community members with similar interests.

5. Mobilize.

Encourage your friends, family and neighbors to join in your efforts for adequate, affordable housing. More housing advocates taking action means more and better housing policies.

6. Celebrate and reflect.

Meaningful change can often take time. Remember to pace yourself and cherish every win — big or small — along the way. If wins are slow to come, reflect on the relationships you’ve built through advocacy within your community and know that every action you take is a step in the right direction.

Habitat’s advocacy in action

Habitat has seen just how powerful housing advocates are in shaping their communities.

For example, Habitat Wake County in North Carolina leads an advocacy ambassador program that equips residents with tools and resources to be effective changemakers. Advocacy ambassadors attend trainings to prepare for a local lobby day where Habitat volunteers raise housing-related concerns with elected officials.

With support from local advocates, Habitat Wake’s efforts have led to many notable wins, including helping to secure $80 million for an affordable housing bond in Raleigh, North Carolina.

In South America, Habitat Brazil became a key member of the global Zero Evictions Campaign. With Habitat’s help, residents brought awareness to the roughly half a million Brazilians facing the threat of eviction through public demonstrations, petitions, handwritten letters and media coverage.

The residents’ advocacy work influenced their Supreme Court to place nationwide moratoriums on evictions, which Habitat Brazil estimates prevented 160,000 forced evictions.

Woman in blue Habitat scarf speaking at podium in Washington, D.C.

U.S. advocacy for housing

Did you know that in addition building houses, Habitat for Humanity is advocating to change systems and policies to ensure U.S. families have access to decent, affordable homes?

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Woman with daughter and granddaughter

Home Equals

Home Equals is a five-year global advocacy campaign committed to achieving policy change to ensure that people living in informal settlements have equitable access to adequate housing. Together, with partners, governments and communities, we can create lasting change.

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Family outside their home.

What is housing affordability?

Families across the United States are paying too high a price to cover the cost of home. Rents and homeownership costs are skyrocketing while wages are not keeping pace. Everyone should have enough money left over after paying rent or mortgage costs to cover life’s necessities.

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Group of Habitat supporters take a selfing together in Washington, D.C.

6 ways to advocate for affordable housing

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Starter home model revolutionizes affordable housing in Flagstaff

Habitat for Humanity Northern Arizona is building 500-square foot starter homes to bring more affordable housing options to Flagstaff, Arizona. An affordable down payment and an equity savings program are just two of the many features that make the affiliate’s starter home model so transformative.

Story at a glance

  • The housing affordability crisis is making it difficult for cities across the U.S. to recruit and retain essential community workers, including police officers and teachers.
  • Habitat Northern Arizona is increasing the supply of affordable housing by building entry-level starter homes while driving down building costs, which are a nationwide barrier to building affordable housing.
  • This starter home approach is set apart by energy-efficient, open-concept home designs as well as an innovative equity savings program.

Like many communities in the U.S., the city of Flagstaff, Arizona, is facing a housing affordability crisis. The cost of housing in the popular mountain city has reached record highs, with the median home price soaring to $650,000.

Meanwhile, the dearth of affordable housing has made it difficult for the city to recruit and retain essential community workers, such as teachers, police officers and firefighters. They simply can’t afford to live in Flagstaff.

A man in a red shirt inside a house.

Tucker is the first homeowner to move into one of Habitat Northern Arizona’s new loft-style starter homes. “It’s the best thing I could ask for,” Tucker says.

Starter homes at scale

Habitat Northern Arizona created an innovative response to their community’s tremendous need for affordable housing: the starter home model.

By 2028, they plan to build 50 starter homes — simple and efficient 500-square-foot residences — and procure enough land partnerships for 50 more. The new starter homes will increase the affordable housing stock and keep low-wage earners rooted in Flagstaff.

A rendering of the exterior of a house with solar panels and mountains in the backdrop.

Habitat Flagstaff’s 500-square-foot starter homes feature a lofted bedroom, kitchen, full bathroom, living area and 23-foot vaulted ceilings.

“We loved the idea that a small concept home would allow us to build more with the same budget,” says Eric Wolverton, CEO at Habitat Northern Arizona. “We found a way to take equity and turn it into a savings program that homeowners can actually use to cash out when they outgrow their starter home.”

Through key partnerships with local organizations, volunteers and land donors, Habitat Northern Arizona was also able to scale their starter homes by driving down labor and construction costs — a nationwide barrier to building affordable housing.  

The first two starter homes were constructed by local Coconino Community College students and installed on land donated by the city’s Land Trust Program. Course instructor Ken Myers says his students’ role inspired the next generation of homebuilders — two students who helped build the first starter home have already launched their own contracting companies.

More land was donated to Habitat Northern Arizona when a private developer scratched plans to build 10 affordable homes on three acres of land after learning the affiliate could leverage the same space to build 48 starter homes.

Starter homes: A closer look at the design

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The open-concept house features a lofted bedroom, living area, kitchen and full bathroom.

Local architect and former Habitat Northern Arizona board president Karl Eberhard designed the structure with vaulted 23-foot ceilings and large windows to offer a spacious feel with plenty of natural light. The homes are also all-electric and equipped with solar panels and thermal insulation to keep energy costs low. Habitat affiliates can customize the design to fit construction contexts.

“We found a way to take equity and turn it into a savings program that homeowners can actually use to cash out when they outgrow their starter home.”
— Eric Wolverton, Habitat Northern Arizona CEO

The innovative homeownership model

It’s the homeownership model that sets the starter home approach apart:

  • Affordable down payment: Homebuyers purchase the house with just a $1,000 down payment, immediately reducing a major barrier to entry for many low-income home seekers.
  • Monthly principal payments funneled into savings account: Homeowners put $833 in monthly principal payments into a savings account, which is set aside for the homeowner to access once they move out.
  • Occupancy for 3-10 years: Starter homes serve as a medium-term place to increase savings and get low-income home seekers onto the housing continuum.
  • Deed-restricted home: Habitat Northern Arizona reserves the right to the property when a homeowner moves out, ensuring another low-income Flagstaff resident can buy the starter home.
  • Payout upon moving out: When a homeowner moves out, Habitat Northern Arizona pays them for the principal they’ve invested into the starter home – $10,000 annually for each year they lived there.

Residents can already feel the model’s impact — Tucker, who was the first to move into one of the starter homes, describes his new space as “just perfect.” He can’t wait to share his home with Aria, his 9-year-old daughter who lives with her mother in Colorado, when she visits him for the summer.

“It’s the best thing I could ask for. That’s what any parent would want, to provide good housing and a good life for their children,” Tucker says. “It’s even better knowing this house gets passed on to someone else, and I’ll move somewhere else and actually have the financial means to do that.”

Duncan family at playground

Helping essential workers build affordable housing

The lack of affordable housing across the U.S. continues to threaten the livelihoods of essential workers. Habitat for Humanity Roaring Fork Valley and partners created Basalt Vista, a sustainable housing development to help 27 families stay and continue serving the community.

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Habitat House design contest

Habitat houses: Recognizing best-in-class designs

From building resilient, hurricane-proof homes in Florida to prototyping with a 3D-printed home in Virginia, Habitat affiliates in the U.S. seek innovative solutions to local, pressing needs. The 2021 Habitat House Design Contest, generously sponsored for a second year by Simpson Strong-Tie, invited local affiliates to submit their home designs across a range of categories, including equity, multifamily, sustainability and many more. 

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Starter home model revolutionizes affordable housing in Flagstaff
Two men stand in front of a house

Starter home model revolutionizes affordable housing in Flagstaff

Overcoming her fears, Christina is a Habitat for Humanity homeowner with new goals

Christina thought about being a homeowner for eight years — as long as she has been renting — but the idea of being her own landlord was too daunting. “I’m a single mom of three, and I thought it would be a lot to handle.” One day while at her job, Christina was intrigued by a flyer she saw about Habitat for Humanity of St. Joseph County, Indiana’s homeownership program. A co-worker who was already in the program strongly encouraged her to apply. She did, and Christina was approved.

Habitat homeowner Misty finds new sense of safety and stability for herself and young son in new home

In March 2020, as the COVID pandemic was at its peak, Misty and her 6-year-old son were scrambling to find a safe place to shelter in their trailer in Lebanon, Tennessee, as a tornado passed overhead. They found themselves seeking shelter from a tornado again in 2021. Frantic for a better place to live, she searched the housing market and discovered that she couldn’t afford a traditional mortgage. 

The challenge

What does the scope and challenge of improving informal settlements look like? Follow residents of Bangladesh’s informal settlements as they confront enormous challenges head-on.

Innovation: A new twist on building

Tapping into local knowledge and expertise, an innovative construction product in an informal settlement in Kibera creates safer, more affordable homes.

LaShon, Jerry and their girls establish a new life and stability through Habitat homeownership in Findlay, Ohio

LaShon and Jerry applied to the Habitat program in 2019 and following hundreds of hours of their own “sweat equity” alongside volunteers and Habitat for Humanity staff, they moved into their new home last year. She says her new home is a blessing. “It provides stability. It’s an opportunity to show the children that they can do it too — have a good home for their own families one day.”

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