Affordable Housing

Cross-posted from Habitat for Humanity International. Original post available at habitat.org.

Richard Rothstein, a leading expert on U.S. housing policy and author of The Color of Law explains the need for the Fair Housing Act, its context, and the consequences of barriers to equal and affordable housing.

April 11, 2018, marks the 50^th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. The act was passed by Congress in 1968, just days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are pleasantly surprised that the recently passed FY18 federal budget includes significant additional resources for affordable housing. Frankly, we weren’t expecting this and are grateful that Congress is seeing a need for additional resources to address housing affordability across the country.

See the media release from Habitat for Humanity International:

At Habitat Wake, we are always up for a challenge and that’s a good thing since providing homeownership to families earning less than 60% of the area median income is quite a feat in itself.  However, lately the news from Washington begs the question, “Can you make it any harder?”

Here’s just a few recent proposals that make the task of providing affordable housing that much harder:

• The White House eliminates all funding programs that Habitat for Humanity utilizes in its’ FY19 budget proposal.

Earlier this month, the White House released the President's budget request for 2019, which details the Administration's vision for funding federal agencies.

A recent News and Observer article profiles a woman named Vanezza, who is experiencing homelessness in Raleigh and struggling to find an affordable home for her family. The challenges facing Vanezza are her daughter are not unique. As Wake County grows, thousands of families struggle to find an affordable place to live.

Happy New Year! With your help, we'll have a year that we can look back on and say we turned the tide on the need for affordable housing. In this Strong Towns article, Spencer Gardner provides five laws of affordable housing and three strategies for achieving housing affordability.

Last month, lawmakers in the Senate and the House of Representatives each passed respective versions of a tax reform plan. Now Congress is working to reconcile the differences between the two bills and hopes to hold a final vote by the end of the week.

During negotiations, Habitat Wake is advocating for Congress to protect the value of the charitable giving deduction in the final tax plan.

Wake County has experienced considerable growth over the last ten years, but one in four families are still spending more than they can afford for housing. NC Policy Watch recently interviewed Wake County Commissioner Matt Calabria on the state of affordable housing in the local community.