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Advocacy

2023 State Advocacy Priorities

General State Advocacy Priorities

1.

Increase access and funding to affordable homeownership. 

Habitat Iowa affiliates are active in new house construction, critical home repairs, energy-efficiency and accessibility upgrades, homeowner education, ReStore, and much more to build up Iowa's homeowners and families.

2.

Expand Iowa's Volunteer Base

Support Volunteer Iowa and other initiatives that promote volunteerism across the state. Through the AmeriCorps State program in partnership with Volunteer Iowa, Habitat Iowa generated 18,893 volunteers and facilitated 102,877 hours of community service in the latest program year.

3.

Incentivize individuals and businesses to support homeownership

Support tax credits and other new forms of support to generate sustainable funding for affordable homeownership. New incentives are needed to address housing and will drive investment in Iowa communities.

4.

Invest in resilient communities

Support organizations that focus on collaboration between public and private entities to promote homeownership solutions. Support neighborhood revitalization, disaster preparedness, and other efforts to strengthen and rebuild communities hit by the economic recession, housing crisis, and other challenges.

Habitat International's
National priorities for housing investment

  • Support policies and programs that increase the supply of affordable homes, spark the revitalization of left-behind neighborhoods and help low-income families and communities of color rebuild and prosper.

  • Prioritize policies that ensure that access to safe, healthy and affordable housing is equitable by rectifying legacies of systemic housing discrimination, closing racial gaps in homeownership and ensuring communities of opportunity for all.

Habitat is committed to continuing its housing advocacy through working with elected officials at all levels of government to find and implement policy solutions that will enable access to affordable homes for 10 million people in the U.S. over the course of the five-year Cost of Home campaign.

Cost of Home Campaign

Cost of Home is a five-year advocacy campaign through which local Habitat organizations, partners, volunteers and community members across the country are working together so that 10 million people have access to an affordable home.

Cost of Home has already helped more than 4 million people access decent housing through our advocacy to influence policies at the local, state and federal level. But we haven’t reached our goal — yet. That’s why we need you to join Habitat Internation

Families all across the United States are paying too high a price to cover the cost of home.

Everywhere you look — cities, suburbs, rural areas — the stability that home should bring remains out of reach for far too many families.

At Habitat for Humanity, we know that a family should never have to spend more than 30% of their income on a home. But consider that even before the coronavirus pandemic, more than 17 million U.S. households were paying half or more of their income on a place to live. Now, as the significant economic impacts of COVID-19 continue to unfold, the number of families struggling to make ends meet is only growing.

 

Together, we can make the cost of home something we all can afford. 

Through our five-year Cost of Home campaign, we commit to mobilizing our local Habitat organizations, our partners, our volunteers and community members across the country to find the solutions and help create the policies that will allow 10 million individuals to meet their most basic needs.

We Need Your Support Today!

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