The US faces an unprecedented economic future as the effects of the COVID-19 continue to impact our communities. In times of previous economic recessions, Congress has passed sweeping housing policies to get and keep families in homes. Congress is currently deliberating the next COVID-19 relief package and we’re asking you to support Habitat for Humanity. Please email your members of Congress and urge them to prioritize the needs of low-income families and organizations that work hard to serve them.
Support is critical at a time where 18 million families in the US are cost-burdened by their living expenses, spending over half their income on housing. Families that live in Habitat for Humanity’s homes spend less than a third of their income! Please voice your support for nonprofits like us to continue our work in creating housing stability.
Click here to send a message to your members of Congress. We ask you to personalize the provided template with personal stories of how homeowners, renters, and nonprofits will help your community recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the message, we ask for the support of the Housing Assistance Fund that increases foreclosure prevention efforts, as well as the WORK NOW Act which helps nonprofit organizations retain and hire new employees.
The Housing Assistance Fund would help struggling homeowners through mortgage payment assistance, principal reduction, reinstatement of mortgages following a period of forbearance, and utility payment assistance, as well as provide support for struggling renters. It would provide a flexible source of federal funding to state-level Housing Finance Agencies to enable families impacted by COVID-19 to remain in their homes.
The WORK NOW Act would provide resources to support nonprofits to scale services to meet increased demand, retain employees and put newly unemployed individuals back to work serving their communities. At a time when communities are increasingly relying on nonprofits for support, nonprofits themselves are facing economic shocks that limit how much they can help. The WORK NOW Act is complementary and builds from the success of the Paycheck Protection Program to support all nonprofits regardless of size.