Join The Coalition
Passing HB5170 takes a coalition — and Fix Our Homes Illinois is already more than thirty organizations and a growing number of seniors who have lived this fight themselves.
There's room for you in it. Whether you're an organization ready to lend your name, a group that wants a hand in strategy, or one person with a story that could change a lawmaker's mind, your part matters.
The bill moves when the people it helps, and the people who stand with them, make themselves impossible to ignore.
How You Can Help
Some people want a seat at the table. Others have five minutes when a vote is close.
Every one of these makes a difference, and you can do as much or as little as your life allows.
Three more ways an individual can help the campaign: become a member, speak up, or spread the word.
Become a coalition member
People with lived experience are full members of this coalition, not an audience for it. Members help decide strategy, weigh in on the bill itself, and carry the campaign’s message to the people who can pass it. If home repair has shaped your life, that firsthand knowledge belongs in the room where decisions get made.
What members do
Join a monthly meeting through a coalition liaison · help shape materials and strategy · speak with elected officials and, when you choose to, the media · share updates with your own networks. You set your own level of involvement.
Speak up when it counts
A bill moves through a handful of decisive moments — a committee hearing, a floor vote, a deadline. At each one, the voices of ordinary Illinoisans can tip the outcome. You don’t need to know the process. We’ll tell you when a moment is coming and exactly what to do.
Actions we’ll ask for
File a witness slip — a one-minute online form recording your support for the record at a hearing. Sign a support letter we deliver to lawmakers. Contact your representative to say you back HB5170.
Spread the word
The homeowners who need this bill most are often the last to hear that help exists. When you share the campaign with your block, your congregation, or your own family, you reach people no action alert ever will — and you grow the base of support lawmakers are counting.
Easy ways to start
Post the campaign to your social media · forward it to a senior you know or the family caring for one · mention the bill at your block club, church, or community meeting · point neighbors to the home-repair resource directory.
Endorse The Bill
Not every organization has the staff time to sit on a coalition — but almost any can lend its name. Endorsing is the lightest way to stand publicly behind HB5170, and it still moves the bill.
What endorsing the campaign involves, and how it differs from full coalition membership.
What endorsing means
Your organization supports the campaign and appears on our promotional materials as a public backer. From time to time, and only when your capacity allows, we may ask you to help — but the commitment is yours to set, and there are no meetings to attend.
Listed publicly as a supporter on campaign materials, adding your organization’s credibility to the cause.
Occasional, optional asks — sharing an action alert, providing a support letter or witness slip, or speaking with an elected official when you’re able.
No meetings and no voting role — endorsers lend their name; coalition members steer the campaign.
Endorser or member?
Endorse if…
You believe in the bill and want your name behind it, but your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to take on regular commitments. You’ll help when you can, on your own terms.
Become a member if…
You want a hand in strategy and a vote on key decisions, and you can send someone to a monthly meeting. Members shape the campaign; the deeper commitment comes with real influence.
