Until recently, my family lived the way too many Californians do: one unexpected bill, one rent increase, one disruption away from instability. My partner, Yulisa, and I were raising our son, Cesar, whose disability requires constant care and consistency, on a single income because I needed to stay home as his full-time caregiver. Homeownership once felt impossible. Today, thanks to Habitat for Humanity, we own a home in Walnut Creek — and I know firsthand what is at stake if that opportunity disappears for other working families.
A year and a half ago, we moved into an affordable home built through Habitat for Humanity. Since then, we’ve gained something we had never fully known before: security.
Our home is more than where we live. It is the foundation that allows our family to function — where our son can receive the stability and support he needs, and where we can finally plan beyond the next month.
That is why I am alarmed that California may eliminate funding for CalHome, the state’s only program dedicated to building affordable homes for homeownership. Habitat for Humanity depends on CalHome as a vital source of funding, and cutting it means cutting off critical opportunities.
For families like mine, CalHome is not an abstract line item in a state budget. It is a life-changing investment.
Before we became homeowners, we spent years renting. Like millions of Californians, we did everything we were told to do: worked hard, paid our bills, and tried to build a stable life. Yet we remained vulnerable — one landlord decision or rent increase away from housing insecurity.
When you rent without options, you learn how to endure uncertainty. You accept housing conditions you shouldn’t have to accept. You postpone plans. You lower expectations. You survive.
But survival is not the same as stability.
We weren’t chasing luxury. We wanted what most families want: safety, predictability, and a place where our son could thrive.
Today, Cesar has a home adapted to his needs. We have neighbors who know us. We have roots. For the first time, our future is not organized around the next lease renewal or rent hike — it is organized around what we can build.
That is what affordable homeownership makes possible. It transforms anxiety into belonging. It strengthens neighborhoods and allows working families to build equity, dignity, and generational stability.
And yet there are far too few opportunities like ours.
Habitat for Humanity is using CalHome funding to complete the final 19 homes in our neighborhood. After that, there is no guarantee the next families will get the same chance we did.
That should concern every Californian.
At a time when families are already being squeezed by rising housing costs, groceries, and everyday necessities, eliminating the state’s primary affordable homeownership program sends exactly the wrong message: that homeownership is reserved only for those who already have wealth.
That is not the California we should accept.
Affordable homeownership is not charity. It is smart public policy. It creates stronger communities, healthier families, and a more stable economy.
My family was fortunate. We walked through a door that programs like CalHome helped open. We do not want to be among the last families to receive that opportunity.
We want thousands more Californians to experience what we have: the chance to look around their neighborhood and say, “We belong here.”
Lawmakers should fully invest the $500 million needed for CalHome and protect the pathway to affordable homeownership for working families.
Because in California, home should not be a dream you rent. It should be a future you own.