Creating More Affordable Housing
In Illinois, hundreds of thousands of people are left homeless or
are at risk of losing their homes simply because the state lacks enough
affordable housing.
To prevent people from becoming homeless and to create affordable
housing for people who are homeless, CCH launched its statewide housing
campaign, It Takes a Home to Raise a Child, in 1998. The housing campaign works to create more resources
for emergency housing assistance and more units of permanent affordable
housing.
Housing is considered unaffordable if its monthly cost is more than 30
percent of one's monthly income. According to a 2006 census
survey, 1.5 million households in Illinois pay more than 30 percent of
their income each month for housing. Of this, 722,000 Illinois
households allocate more than half their monthly income for
housing. Spending so much on housing means that many families do
not have enough money left over for utility bills and other household
costs--much less sudden emergencies, like a hospital visit or a death
in the family.
That so many people in Illinois are one paycheck away from losing their
home is not surprising given the rising cost of housing
statewide. The minimum wage in Illinois rose to $7.75 an
hour in July 2008, but the statewide "housing wage" is more than double
that, at $15.95 an hour. A minimum-wage worker would need to work
two and a half full-time jobs to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the
fair market rate of $829. In Chicago and suburban Cook County,
fair market rent is $935 for a two-bedroom apartment, and renters must
earn $17.98 an hour--or work 111 hours per week at minimum wage--to
afford rental housing.
Thanks to the CCH housing campaign, Illinois funds a
cost-effective homeless prevention grants program and a rent
subsidy program. In nine years, 79,000 Illinois families have
been helped by prevention grants that average less than $800. The
Illinois Rental Housing Support Program provides housing subsidies for
1,930 low-income families across the state, including 1,500 in
Chicago. Read more about CCH's housing victories here.
Read the story of one mother who got help through the Rental Housing Support Program.
