Housing Justice! is a statewide interfaith organization that incorporated in June 2001 in response to a longstanding affordable housing shortage in Colorado.  Currently, one in every five Coloradoans struggles to afford food, clothing, medical treatment and transportation due to the high cost of housing.  Housing Justice! believes everyone needs a place to live and that this lack of affordable housing exists due in large part to a lack of awareness and understanding.  Addressing this need will also require significant financial resources. Our goal is to teach people to think, talk and act differently about those who struggle to find or to keep affordable housing.

Our goal is to make affordable housing available to all Coloradoans by the year 2022.  Housing Justice! joins with communities experiencing a shortage of affordable housing to strengthen their capacity to produce or preserve adequate affordable housing by:

• Educating the faith community and issuing a call to action

• Providing an alternative to the voice of indifference and to “NIMBY” opposition

• Participating in local non-partisan political efforts to address affordable housing issues

• Actively promoting the creation of a Colorado affordable housing investment fund

• Helping to catalyze partnerships among faith communities and housing agencies, builders, developers and financial organizations toward the creation of new housing solutions

Why Justice?

As people of faith, our God requires us to seek justice.  Evidence of this can be found in the Torah, Qur’an, and Bible as well as from Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Taoist, Confucian, Shinto and African Tribal writings and traditions.

“Justice, justice you shall pursue.” - The Bible, Deuteronomy 16:20

“All men are responsible for one another.” - Talmud, Sanhedrin 27b

“He that oppresses the poor blasphemes his maker, but he that is gracious to the poor honors Him.” - The Bible, Proverbs 14:31

“The man of perfect virtue, wishing to establish himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others.” - Confucianism, Analects 6.28.2

“Jesus traveled to Nazareth, where he had grown up.  On the Sabbath day he went to the Synagogue, as he always did, and stood up to read.  The book of Isaiah the prophet was given to him.  He opened the book and found the place where this is written: “The Lord has put his Spirit in me, because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again.  God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly and to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness.” - The Bible, Luke 4:16-19

“The Buddha said, ‘When you see someone practicing the Way of giving, aid him joyously, and you will obtain vast and great blessings.’  A shramana asked, ‘Is there an end to those blessings?’ The Buddha said, ‘Consider the flame of a single lamp.  Though a hundred thousand people come and light their own lamps from it so that they can cook their food and ward off darkness, the first lamp remains the same as before.  Blessings are like this, too.’” - Sutra of Forty-two Sections 10