In our first ever episode of Because of This House, we have a conversation with Caitlyn Baylor, Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity’s homeowner services coordinator. Caitlyn shares her expertise about the realities of housing in Rockford, particularly the lack of affordable housing options in our community. She helps us understand affordable housing as an objective term rather than a subjective one, and unpacks how the history of housing discrimination, redlining, and blockbusting limits affordable housing opportunities for many people in Rockford. Finally, Caitlyn shares how Habitat addresses some of these issues, and walks us through the process of how homebuyers become Habitat homeowners. We’re beyond excited to share this conversation with you, and think it’s the perfect overview of what Because of This House is all about. Resources: Social vulnerability and Redlining Map: https://dsl.richmond.edu/socialvulnerability/map/#loc=12/42.24/-89.132&city=rockford-il | A report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition on the High Cost of Housing: https://reports.nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/OOR_2020.pdf | Rockford Habitat Blog post with statistics about Habitat Home Mortgages: https://rockfordhabitat.org/2020/10/02/rahfh-celebrates-a-20th-homeowner-paying-off-their-mortgage-in-full/