What does Habitat for Humanity Do?

A common misconception about Habitat for Humanity is that we give away houses. This couldn't be further from the truth. Habitat homeowners have bought their houses the old fashioned way just like other homeowners out there. The difference is that Habitat homeowners fit into specific criteria in order to qualify for partnership with HFH. The three fundamental criteria are:

1) A need for housing

2) Ability to pay a mortgage

3) Willingness to partner with Habitat: this includes several hundred hours of volunteer time invested in the organization

The families that come to us for partnership are ready to start on the path toward homeownership, but can't get a mortgage through typical routes. This happens for many reasons, sometimes income or credit issues, or the inability to pay all of the closing and down payment costs, but usually, it is because of too low of an income or good credit that just isn't good enough for some lenders. What Habitat does to help families who come to us is to provide access to credit counseling referrals, homeowner and financial education classes, sweat equity, subsidies, and anything else that we can in order to pave the way for successful homeownership.

Habitat aspires to build hope. Hope is the currency here and throughout all Habitat for Humanity workings and philosophies.

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"Habitat embraces people from all walks of life and extends hope to

people who have lost hope." (Family Selection Affiliate Operations Manual)

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Now that you have a general idea of what Habitat does, here is some food for thought...

1) Today, the majority of low income* renting families spend at least half of their income on housing costs. And almost a quarter—representing over a million families—dedicate over 70 percent of their income to pay rent and keep the lights on. (Matthew Desmond, "Unaffordable America: Poverty, housing, and eviction", Institute for Research on Poverty, No. 22-2015, March 2015, http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/fastfocus/pdfs/FF22-2015.pdf)

2) In 2013, 23% of African American and 25% of Hispanic families renting spent in excess of 50% of their income on housing. (American Housing Survey, 2013)

*the federal poverty level for a family of four is $23,850

Now consider this: the 2016 Fair Market Rent(FMR) in Ulster County New York for a two bedroom apartment is $1,146.00 a month. In Ulster County, 23,349 people live in poverty or 12.8% of the population. The poverty income for a family of four is $24,300.00. A family of four living at the poverty level would need to pay $13,752.00 annually for a two bedroom apartment leaving the family with $10,548.00 or $879.00 a month for other cost of living expenses. Remember that most apartments don't include utilities, so families are responsible for paying those costs as well. Now, you may be thinking, "Yeah, but these people can get food stamps and Medicaid and even help paying their rent!" While this may be true, there are studies that indicate that being dependent on public assistance programs for long periods of time can negatively impact a child's IQ, increase the likelihood of dropping out of school and diminish their ability to earn a decent living for themselves in the long run. Do you really want families to continue along such a path? Of course you don't.

Now think about this: There are strong ties linking homeownership to educational achievement, more stable environments for children due to not having to move from place to place, and the development of life skills for the entire family that they can pass along to future generations. It is these realities that drive Habitat to do what we do and why we are so passionate about our pursuit to eliminate poverty housing and to build hope.