The United for Homes Campaign is a national effort to to fund the National Housing Trust Fund with revenue raised from modifications to the mortgage interest deduction.
By December 31, we would like to recruit 27 new endorsing organizations, which would increase the total number of endorsing organizations in Illinois to 150.
Please help us reach this goal by endorsing the campaign by replying to this message or filling out the form at .
Background
We all need a decent, affordable home. Yet today, in communities across America, millions are without this basic necessity. Nationally, for every 100 extremely low income renters, there are only 30 affordable and available rental homes. In Illinois, there are only 28 such units, meaning that many of these households are paying more than half of their income just to keep a roof over the head of their families.
With the National Housing Trust Fund, we know we can eliminate this gap in the availability of affordable homes. Once funded, the National Housing Trust Fund will expand, preserve, rehabilitate and maintain the supply of rental housing affordable to America’s poorest families. The National Housing Trust Fund was authorized by Congress in 2008 but remains unfunded.
The United for Homes campaign proposes to fund the National Housing Trust Fund through modifications to the current mortgage interest deduction. The changes are simple: reduce the size of a mortgage eligible for a tax break to $500,000, and convert the deduction to a 15% non-refundable tax credit. The campaign website is http://unitedforhomes.org.
These changes would produce a fairer tax policy, and would raise almost $200 billion in revenue over ten years that could be used to end homelessness and address our most important housing problems. For Illinois, this could more than double the amount of federal funding currently available for the development of affordable rental housing each year.
Endorse the Campaign!
More than 1,600 groups nationwide, including 123 groups in Illinois, have endorsed the campaign. Adding your organization to the list of endorsers, will help us better appeal to Illinois’ Congressional members to support this proposal in the coming year.
Organizations can endorse the campaign by replying to this message or at .
Housing Action Illinois is also happy to provide your organization with more information about the campaign if that would help the decision making progress. If you would like more information, please contact Bob Palmer at 312-939-6074 x. 206 or bob@housingactionil.org.