This spring our world changed forever. As COVID-19 reached our shores, stay-at-home orders, school closures, travel bans, and business restrictions upended American life. 

As we practiced social distancing, worked remotely, and only left the house for essential tasks, the walls of our homes defined our day-to-day reality. 

Our homes became our offices, our schools, and our gyms. Our homes became our places of entertainment, of relaxation, of worship and of rest.

Those with safe, stable, healthy homes were protected against the dread of a deadly virus and an uncertain world.

For those living in unsafe, unstable, or unhealthy homes, COVID-19 exacerbated the grim reality of American poverty, including employment precarity, the inescapable debt cycle, food insecurity,  lack of education and access to basic necessities. 

At no point in our history has a healthy, safe, stable, affordable home been so important. 

As we started reaching out to our families as stay-at-home orders were issued, something wonderful happened.

We'd ask how they were doing and they'd respond, "We're doing fine."

Some had lost hours at work. Some were on furlough. Some had lost their jobs. But they had enough in their emergency funds to cover their living expenses for 6 months. 

Some were struggling to manage e-learning with their children. But they expressed delight at having a backyard that provided a respite when the kids needed to release some energy. 

We asked if they needed mortgage forbearance. The overwhelming majority of them declined. Because their mortgage was affordable, because they had a budget and because they had an emergency fund, they didn't need it.

And yet again we were reminded that this is what we're here for. 

We don't just build homes. We prepare families to weather storms like COVID-19.