Advocate for Affordable Housing Policy

Voters have cast their ballots, and now it’s time for elected officials to come together and work on urgent housing needs in our communities. Critical housing protections are set to expire in the coming year. Flatirons Habitat for Humanity cannot express strongly enough the risk families face across the area due to these policy expirations.

In Boulder and Broomfield counties and throughout Colorado, the need for a safe and decent home has been critically important during the COVID-19 pandemic. We need our local, state and federal officials to take action now to support policies that will give people greater access to safe, decent and affordable homes now and for years to come.

Through Habitat’s Cost of Home national advocacy campaign, we are joining a call to Congress to pass a set of priorities to provide immediate housing relief, including mortgage and rental payment assistance that will help stave off a looming eviction and foreclosure crisis that will disproportionately impact communities of color. Federal housing protections, including the CDC’s eviction moratorium and the moratorium on foreclosures of homes backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are due to expire Dec. 31.

We are also calling on newly elected and reelected policymakers at all levels of government to treat housing as infrastructure and economic recovery as they set their 2021 legislative agendas by including robust funding to build and preserve affordable homes in our communities and to ensure equitable access to healthy housing and communities of opportunity.

Habitat is committed to continuing our housing advocacy by working with elected officials at all levels of government to create and implement policy solutions that will enable access to affordable homes for 10 million people in the U.S. over the course of our 5-year Cost of Home campaign. Flatirons Habitat for Humanity has sold six homes to hard working community members since this pandemic began. We are in construction on six other new homes and are rehabbing 23 homes to be sold to hard-working families who are experiencing housing instability right now.

We believe that no one should have to choose between putting food on the table or having a safe place to sleep at night because the cost of housing is too high. It is critical that we get this right. We challenge every lawmaker to acknowledge the individuals and families in our communities who need greater housing stability – and do something about it.

Susan Lythgoe Executive Director Flatirons Habitat for Humanity