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.

Help CCH win its current housing advocacy initiatives.