3 Reasons Affordable Housing Creates a Better World
A house is not just a house, it is a home – a place that shelters, protects, and nurtures. It offers a safe space for the people inside to thrive and supports their personal and professional development.
We believe affordable housing is not a hand out. It’s a hand up. It gives families’ the ability to reimagine their future without the high cost of rent.
In San Gabriel Valley, the need for affordable housing is apparent. The cost to rent or purchase housing has become less affordable for millions of Californians. What needs to be known is the impact affordable housing can make to families and the community.
Affordable Housing is Great for Kids
Stable, affordable housing is important for children’s future. A study done by Boston College and the MacArthur Foundation detailed how poor quality housing is tied to children’s emotional and behavioral problems.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition reported poor housing quality and residential instability are the strongest predictions of behavioral problems among low-income children.
“Addressing housing affordability is the most cost-effective way of lifting people out of poverty, for reducing childhood poverty and increasing economic mobility, says Sarah Mickelson, senior director of public policy at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.”
For children, a stable place to call home gives them an adequate space to study and the possibility to make a better future for themselves. With a room for a small desk and parent’s ability to spend more time with their children – all of these benefits can lead to a happier and healthier family.
It Builds Sustainable Communities
The need for affordable housing is imperative, not only for families who rely on housing, but neighborhoods. Having affordable housing developments in neighborhoods bring a positive impact on the surrounding communities. SGV Habitat works with city governments, housing organizations, and community advocates to create communities for families to thrive in.
Studies have shown affordable housing uplifts residents, encourages social connection, reduces overcrowding, increases adjacent property values, attracts businesses and jobs, and lowers crime rates.
There are many economic benefits of affordable housing. From increased spending, increased hiring, and increased taxes and revenue for local governments, affordable housing can help communities thrive as well. When families worry less about making rent, those living in affordable housing can spend more on more nutritious food and other essential items. Increasing the buying power for low-income families can mean steady income for local businesses, more job creations, and economic growth. This is proven as more and more shops, restaurants and healthcare facilities open where the NHP Foundation has properties.
Promotes Diversity
Affordable housing developments encourage diversity by creating communities where people of different cultural, socio-economic, and educational backgrounds can unite. Diverse communities increase the knowledge of cultural sensitivity, fairness, and understanding of different backgrounds – ultimately creating a better community overall.
“Community-building investments that help neighbors from diverse backgrounds overcome their fears and suspicions and build positive social relationships across racial and ethnic lines may also help strengthen and stabilize newly diversifying neighborhoods and enable residents to enjoy the potential benefits,” according to a study by the Urban Institute.
By supporting affordable housing in your community, you will be helping a family finally buy their first home, children being able to study in their own rooms, build a stronger and more vibrant community, and much more.
How You Can Help
- Help sustain and expand the Healthy Homes initiatives at the federal, state and local levels, including public-private collaborative programs
- Strengthen enforcement of fair housing laws, including the Fair Housing Act and other state and local regulations prohibiting racial discrimination in housing markets
- Donate now to show your support to fix the housing crisis in the San Gabriel Valley and beyond
Home for the Holidays
The holiday season often leads us to reflect on what is truly important. For me, this time of year is particularly special. I am always moved by the charitable acts from kind people like you who respond to our urgent request to help our community’s families in need.
For many low-income families in Northeast Los Angeles, Pasadena, Glendale, and the San Gabriel Valley, the holidays can be a hard and stressful time…a stark reminder of what it means not to have an affordable and permanent place to live.
This year more than ever, our community’s low-income families need your help. The pandemic has been unforgiving as these families have endured significant financial hardships and uncertainty. The cost of housing is weighing even heavier on those who were already struggling to keep a roof over their heads.
With your holiday gift, you can help a family receive the best gift of all…the opportunity to become homeowners with their very own decent and affordable place to call home.
Imagine how meaningful this holiday season could be for a family who receives the good news that they have qualified for our program and will become homeowners or receive help repairing their home! You can bring this joyful news to a family by making a donation right now.
You have helped more than 230 families spend their holidays in a home that is safe, decent and affordable, including the local families pictured above.
Harold, Idalia, and their family moved into their home last year. We are happy to tell you that they are thriving in their new Habitat home in Pasadena! Keep reading to see what life was like before homeownership and how their lives are now.
Before, their rental house was so small, they converted the porch into a bedroom.
Now, their home is large enough to comfortably house their family of six.
Before, the doorways were so narrow that Harold and Idalia had to carry Paula, their wheelchair-bound daughter, from room to room.
Now, Paula finally has a home that works for her! It has a ramp, wide doorways, and an accessible bathroom.
Before, the ever-present stress in their lives was worrying about constant moves due to increasing rent.
Now, “My parents no longer worry about having to move us again.”, said their daughter Katherine.
“Everything has changed for the better,” Idalia told us. “Our children are happier and feel more secure.”
Harold and Idalia know that owning their own home is making it possible for their children to have a better future.
Supporters like you have made this dream a reality for Harold and Idalia! Your continued contributions will make it possible for even more families to achieve the same dream that Harold and Idalia have. You make it possible for families to become homeowners.
Celebrate this holiday season by giving hope to another family in need by making a gift to San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity today.
Gratefully,
Mark Van Lue
Executive Director
P.S. Give more families like Harold and Idalia’s a hand up – not a hand out – to help them build and buy their own decent and affordable homes. Please send your most generous holiday gift today!
Homes, Communities, Hope, + You
Habitat homeowner Christina tells supporters what having a safe and stable home means for her family.
When more people get involved – change happens.
As a result of COVID-19, more than 300 million people in 42 states have been asked to “stay at home” — and now more than ever, home is everything.
From May 11-31, San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity has launched the Homes, Communities, Hope + You campaign to ensure that we are able to continue— and accelerate —our work in San Gabriel Valley to ensure that everyone has a decent place to call home. As the economic shocks from this crisis ripple out, the need for affordable, safe, and healthy housing is more apparent than ever.
— We cannot do our work without your help. Habitat is needed now more than ever. And now more than ever, we need you. Here’s how you can help!
- Get involved on social media
- Take a selfie like the one on the right with the message “SGV Habitat + ME” on the sign. Use one of the post suggestions below or create your own – and challenge your friends!
- I’m excited to join #SGVHabitat’s Homes, Communities, Hope + You campaign! I challenge [tag 2-3 friends] to join me in spreading this awesome community. Share your selfie!
- I’m standing with #SGVHabitat and sharing my selfie to support the idea of Homes, Communities, Hope + You! Let’s flood the internet with positivity and connection during this time!
- I support Habitat’s mission because I believe that home should be a place of comfort & safety during a time of uncertainty. I challenge you to share your selfie & declare support for Habitat’s Homes, Communities, Hope + You campaign!
- We can build community during this time, even when we are physically distant. A community centered around hope and connection. Join me in rallying around Homes, Communities, Hope + You!
- Take a selfie like the one on the right with the message “SGV Habitat + ME” on the sign. Use one of the post suggestions below or create your own – and challenge your friends!
- Donate Now
- Not on social media, but want to make an impact? You can! Click here to donate and help build homes, communities, and hope.
Spreading the word about the need for decent and affordable housing and what Habitat does to fulfill this need is more than important than ever. We can make a difference together – and it starts with YOU!
What happens when ‘stay at home’ means staying in an unhealthy place?
Home is the place to stay safe from a global pandemic. And for many of us, our home also has suddenly become our school, our barbershop, our restaurant, our office, our movie theater. For many, “stay at home” has meant the inconvenience of a changed routine. But for more than 19 million U.S. families sheltering in place, the substandard, overcrowded, or unaffordable housing situations they live with have only increased their feelings of uncertainty and vulnerability.
All of us at Habitat for Humanity know firsthand that better, affordable living conditions lead to improved health and stronger childhood development. We know that they give families the ability — and financial flexibility — to make forward-looking choices. Proper shelter creates jobs, revitalizes neighborhoods, attracts employers, increases consumer spending and government revenues, and lowers the risk of foreclosure, all while bringing transformative benefits to families and developing resiliency in communities.
We are an organization with Christian roots that operates in more than 70 countries around the world and in every state of the U.S. Our vision has always been the same: a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Here at San Gabriel Valley Habitat, with support like yours, we have partnered with more than 200 families who now have a safe, decent, and affordable place to call “home.”
Before this pandemic, the world was already experiencing a housing crisis. COVID-19 has revealed its extent and added to its urgency. Habitat is needed now more than ever. And — now more than ever — we need you.
‘Home has rarely been more of a life-or-death situation.’
— Leilani Farha, U.N. special rapporteur on the right of adequate housing
The scope and impact of COVID-19 is unprecedented. It has led to a near halt of the U.S. economy, with over 20 million people losing their jobs, and the impact will be felt throughout the economy for months and years to come.
While not immediately obvious to some, the pandemic’s effect on housing will be significant and lasting. Based on history, it’s likely that the negative effects will be disproportionately borne by vulnerable communities and low-income individuals. As the economic shocks from this crisis ripple out, these families will be hit hardest. They always are.
Low-income households are particularly at risk because of their economic instability and their concentration in the service industry and other hourly jobs that have some of the highest risks of COVID-19 disruptions. Given that 100% of our homeowners have low incomes, nearly all are first-time homeowners. We have always worked to provide flexibility to homebuyers to ensure long- term success, but as COVID-19 increases the economic need for these families, it also causes us to lose funds that support our operations, including [home builds, home repairs and Habitat ReStore operations].
Many of the families in our current pipeline represent the front-line workers who are fulfilling essential duties during this crisis. These are the individuals bagging groceries, delivering packages, preparing food, and working in hospitals. The uncertainty that so many of us feel today, these families have felt for a lifetime — if not generations.
The need doesn’t go away just because the economy has stalled. In fact – the need is growing.
• Over 500,000 Americans are homeless.
• Forty percent of renters are considered cost-burdened.
• Nearly 6 million Americans live in substandard housing.
• In an estimated 12 million of these households, at least one contributing member works in an at-risk industry.
We, just like the millions who are under stay-at-home orders, are adjusting to this ever-changing situation. Build sites are suspended, Habitat ReStores are closed, and finances are impacted, but our operations continue. Every day, front-line Habitat for Humanity staff members continue to make affordable homeownership a reality for families. They are working virtually to service mortgages and coach homeowners to ensure that they can stay in their homes. They are pivoting homeowner services, education, and financial planning to virtual environments and making payroll to ensure that when our economy reopens, we are prepared not just to continue building, but also to accelerate to meet the increased need for affordable housing.