Neighbor News
SC Association of Habitat Affiliates Joins #CostofHome Campaign
Habitat organizations across the country are mobilizing to influence policy and system changes at the federal, state and local levels.
Nearly 19 million households across the United States are spending at least half of their income on a place to live, often forgoing basic necessities such as food and health care to make ends meet. The stability that housing should bring continues to remain out of reach for many people. In South Carolina, the wage required to afford fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment working 40 hours per week is $16.38/hour, or $34,080 annually.
Today, South Carolina Association of Habitat Affiliates (SCAHA) joined Habitat organizations across the country to launch a new national advocacy campaign aimed at improving home affordability for 10 million people in the U.S. over the next five years.
Marking significant growth in Habitat’s commitment to ensuring that everyone has a safe and decent place to call home, the Cost of Home campaign seeks to identify and improve policies and systems through coordinated advocacy efforts at the local, state and federal levels.
Find out what's happening in Columbiafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Cost of Home focuses on improving housing affordability across the housing continuum in four specific policy areas: increasing supply and preservation of affordable homes, equitably increasing access to credit, optimizing land use for affordable homes, and ensuring access to and development of communities of opportunity.
SCAHA is hoping to help reach these goals right here in South Carolina. While there is no silver bullet to solving the nation’s home affordability challenge, the Cost of Home aims its attention on underlying policy issues that are critical in helping families achieve home affordability. SCAHA is working to make sure everyone understands the obstacles that have to be overcome to make housing affordable for families. These obstacles vary through each county but a lot remain the same throughout the state.
Find out what's happening in Columbiafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“Over the last couple of years, we have created major partnerships between, municipalities and state and federal agencies,” SCAHA director Chad Charles said. “With homeownership and affordable housing comes many benefits to the community like higher graduation rates and less dependency on government assistance. It benefits everyone.”
More details about Habitat’s Cost of Home policy platform and ways to get involved are available at https://mailchi.mp/70871c5f1d0... For more information or to speak to SCAHA about the campaign, please contact Chad Charles at chad@schabitats.org or scahasocial@gmail.com.