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Causes: Christianity, Homeless & Housing, Housing Development, Construction & Management, Human Services, Religion, Thrift Shops
Mission: A locally run florida affiliate of habitat for humanity international, a nonprofit, ecumenical christian housing organization. Habitat for humanity works in partnership with people in need to build and renovate decent, affordable housing. The houses are then sold to those in need at no profit and with no interest charged. Volunteers provide most of the labor, and individuals, faith and corporate donors provide money and materials to build habitat houses. Partner families themselves invest hundreds of hours of labor - "sweat equity" - into building their homes and the homes of others. Their mortgage payments go into a revolving fund for humanity that is used to build more houses.
Programs: Affordable home building:for the current fiscal year, halifax hfh completed 5 homes (1 renovations, 4 replacement) which were sold to families. Because habitat is not a give-away program, families purchase the home from habitat at no profit and habitat provides a zero interest mortgage to the family for the life of the loan. Habitat also helps to secure any downpayment or first-time homebuyer assistance funding that the family may be qualified to receive. These funds help to pay down a portion of the mortgage before the family even moves in, giving an opportunity to ensure that the affordability of this home is sustainable for the long-term. As the family makes their mortgage payments , all funds are used to help support the building of additional habitat homes. Consequently, while (one) family is helped in this fiscal year, all families that work with habitat in the future are also assisted. Finally, a continuing significant program service is the on-going education for our homeowners, habitat wants each homeowner to be successful for the long-term and has found that it is important to define what is required in successful homeownership. Staff is involved in the development of the education program but also relies on the involvement of committee members and local community experts, to help facilitate that effort.
operation and management of restore in direct support of the affordable housing program. The purpose of the restore is to raise funds for our affordable home building program and also to serve as an ambassador for the habitat mission. Sometimes a donor or customer to the restore first learns about the habitat mission and our local affiliate work in this manner. Many times these individuals become regular volunteers and/or donors to the program. The restore also serves the local community which is largely comprised of low-income households in that the restore sells donated building materials, home furnishings and appliances at prices that are on average 50-75% of what these items would cost new at retail price. The restore also provides an opportunity to recycle and reuse-saving landfill space and limits the impact on the environment.
home ownership readiness and continued education.