Tips to Avoid Losing Your Housing

Importance of Prevention

Academic studies show that every 25 cents spent on prevention services saves a minimum of 1.00 that will be spent if you lose your housing. This means that for funders, including the government, and also for you, every quarter you spend on prevention will pay you back four times.

This is not just true for funders; it is true for you. If you lose your housing, you can expect every aspect of your life so suffer every day. Your physical health, mental health, job competencies will all suffer and coming back from those losses will be difficult.

The very best thing for everyone is for nobody to lose their housing in the first place. As a result, you would expect government and private dollars to provide sufficient prevention services to help those who become housing insecure. Unfortunately, that is not true. Most communities have limited prevention available, and only for families. Despite the fact that it saves dollars and lives, many in society would rather see people suffer than help them with prevention dollars.

To understand this, it is vital to look at the cognitive biases. Perhaps nobody helped them pay the rent, and a result they feel like helping you pay your rent is unfair to them. While they will rarely say that they think people who cannot pay their own rent deserve to experience homelessness, it may be what they think. Therefore, you should not depend on public assistance if you cannot afford your housing. You should understand that you if you do not pay your rent or mortgage on time every month without fail, you could lose your housing.

Some prevention assistance is available for families with children. This is only if you can prove the children are yours and would not apply to the father unless you have a marriage certificate and proof all the children are his. The bureaucracy involved is baffling (see documents and cognitive bias) Some communities may also help with power or utility bills for families only. Communities who do provide these services will only do so once a year maximum and they will require detailed documentation. Usually, they will not move quickly and therefore even if they offer help, you could be evicted by the time they decide. Therefore, we strongly encourage you: Never spend more than you can afford on housing. Know or learn your budget and stick to it. You cannot depend on anyone bailing you out.

Never spend more than you can afford for housing

For a quick reference guide, that saves you most math, you can figure that

You can determine your total housing costs below – or just add your rent/mortgage + insurance + any taxes + utilities in most cases. If you pay other fees related to housing (listed below) you should include them as well. If you are paying more than 50% of your income on housing, we recommend that you cease as soon as possible and bring your housing costs down before you face housing instability.