Rev. Kevass Harding on Breaking Down Barriers to Affordable Housing

Kevass Harding (0:01)

I'm trying to make sure you're educated. So we have a partnership with HopeNet, where we have a yearly class, Bridges Out of Poverty, called Getting Ahead. So we have a curriculum where you start in January for a whole semester. We'll feed your children, childcare, feed you, and then we'll go into class for that whole semester from January to May. We have a full-fledged graduation.

We celebrate the impact because we're teaching them financial literacy, which we also do through another class, which is six weeks, and we do that four times a year, which is called Save, Match and Grow. That's in partnership with us, stand together and empower another organization.

SPEAKER_2 (1:00)

Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential.

David From (1:10)

Hey, everyone, and welcome to the American Potential Podcast. I'm your host, David From. Today, we're going to be talking about housing.

Engineer Matt, I know that this is a topic that particularly your generation, that's just been a real challenge. People are trying to find affordable housing.

It's just not the same. The American Dream is the same as it used to be. I feel like we're got to get a job, get married, and you start having on your way to home ownership. And that's been disrupted, it seems like. So what do you hear? You're of an age. I'd say that I'm quite a bit older, but you're of an age where people should be trying to find their home. And I know a lot of people are struggling with that.

Matt (1:53)

Yeah, David, I'm 28 years old, and I've got friends, I've got peers who are looking to buy homes and have been trying for a long time. And people in my generation have a number of factors to deal with, which as many of them are coming out of school with stratospheric student debt to begin with, which is already setting them a little behind when it comes to getting a home. But a lot of my peers, they want to be homeowners, they want to start that American dream, they want to put their roots down, they want to start families now. But they're struggling to find homes that are affordable. And I've had friends who've been in the market for a really long time, who haven't been able to find anything in their price range, or have had to look at moving in order to find homes into other places that are a lot cheaper. In fact, I've got a couple of friends who are moving out to Asia. They're looking at the Asian countries in terms of, we want to be able to afford a place, we want to be able to actually own it, and we want to live in a place that we can do that in. And so they're actually looking at other countries at this point. And to me, I'm like, well, we need to do what we can to make housing affordable right here in the US, in our home country. People shouldn't have to be looking at other countries, because sure, you might look at other countries that have cheaper homes, but they might be missing all sorts of things that we consider liberties.

We would consider rights here. We're kind of trading that off for affordable housing.

David From (3:19)

Yeah. And I think we're going to talk today about even in poorer areas, like just the basic needs and how government sometimes is putting up barriers to charities just helping people have a place to live. So I'm excited for that conversation. I got a quiz for you.

What do you think the average cost, I'm sorry, the average price is to buy a new home?

Matt (3:48)

Oh, the average, like across the country. Oh, that's a tough one because I'm out in Colorado and I've seen some expensive homes here and that probably weighs into the average a little bit. But I mean, it's got to be somewhere around 350,000 or maybe more.

David From (4:06)

Oh, you're close.

Matt (4:07)

Close. Okay.

David From (4:08)

So the average cost of purchasing an existing or new home is above $400,000, which for many people, that dream of home ownership is just slipping further and further away. One organization in Kansas is stepping up to make home ownership more attainable. But government barriers have complicated those efforts as they frequently do. Fortunately, the state has recently approved legislation aimed at expanding housing options and increasing access to home ownership. So I want to welcome to the podcast, Dr. Reverend Kevass Harding to talk about his organization, Hope Community Development Corporation, and how this bill will help them even more.