John:
Everyone living in the United States should have safe, accessible, sustainable, and permanently affordable housing: a Homes Guarantee.
Housing = health care
As I write this email, I think about the more than 3 million people forced into homelessness by big banks and corporations. Business as usual cannot continue as we enter the winter months with folks still living on the streets. We know homelessness is a massive barrier to health: it makes it harder to get primary care and hurts people's health outcomes. But research shows that permanent supportive housing is the first step in the path out of chronic homelessness. If you want health care justice, you want a Homes Guarantee.
Green social housing = climate intervention and jobs program
Experts predict anywhere from 50 million to one billion people will be displaced by climate-related disasters by 2050. Much of the nation's housing stock is ill equipped to deal with a changing climate. But if we build 12 million units of new social housing, we can create good union jobs, reduce energy consumption, and ensure homes are weather resilient. If you want a 100% Just Green New Deal, you want a Homes Guarantee.
Equal access to housing = racial justice
Our nation was built on wealth extracted from stolen land, genocide, and chattel slavery. That wealth has preserved throughout our history by a handful of elites through racist redlining, exclusion of Black and brown people from home buying incentive programs, and predatory mortgage lending. But we can and must repair our racist housing system by paying real reparations and enacting comprehensive fair housing and tenants rights laws. If you want reparations, you want a Homes Guarantee.
A better future is possible
Fortunately, our grassroots leaders are putting lawmakers' feet to the fire and have challenged them to enact the bold structural change we need – a national Homes Guarantee:
- Building 12 million affordable housing units,
- Reinvesting in public housing,
- Paying reparations to communities of color who have been the victims of racist and predatory housing practices,
- Creating additional protections for tenants and renters, and
- Decommodifying housing and moving towards community-controlled housing.
Sign the petition: Demand your lawmakers pass a Homes Guarantee, building 12 million affordable housing units and reinvest in public housing.
In solidarity,
Tara and the Homes Guarantee team
