Kim and John Thomas, along with their children Christiana, Michael, Tyran, Johnny Jr., and Xavier are very excited about their new home. Kim Thomas “never thought that she would be a homeowner.” She really enjoyed working on her own house. Her family put in 250 hours working on houses for others as well even before their house was started. Kim says that they worked on everything from the foundation up. It was interesting for her family to see all the work that goes into building a home and the ability to build and fix things will serve them well as home owners. Her oldest son also worked on the shed. According to Kim each Habitat house comes with a shed that is similar in design to the house being built.
Habitat for Humanity is based on the concept of “partnership housing” where those in need of adequate shelter work side by side with volunteers to build simple, decent houses. The houses are not given away, a family must purchase the house. The houses are affordable because of their simple design, sweat equity, volunteer labor, and zero interest mortgage.
It is necessary that the family can afford the house, they must meet the income qualifications required by HUD. A family can only have a payment up to 43% of their income, but that number changes from year to year. Habitat combines a no interest mortgage, insurance, and taxes into a single payment. Habitat operates on the philosophy of a hand up not a hand out.
The process requires that the family must have the means and must be willing to partner to build the house. They are required to provide 300-500 hours of sweat equity depending on the size of their family. Half of the hours must be supplied before they start on building their house.
Habitat uses volunteer labor to keep the price of the house down. The foreman on the job is a paid along with some of the specialized trades. There is a current need for volunteers; retirees or individuals to keep pace with the demand to build more affordable homes for Habitat’s partner families. Habitat welcomes corporations, civic groups, and churches to participate in build days. Check with the local affiliate for Habitat for Humanity to find out when build days are happening.
Recently Publix supplied 40 volunteers on a build day. Habitat relies on funding from the local community. The next build will be sponsored in part by Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative, a grant from United Way and concrete donated by CEMEX. Profits from the two Habitat ReStores are also used to purchase building materials for the homes. Habitat also hosts an annual fundraising event to raise funds.
Currently Habitat is building homes in Tangerine Estates off of California Street (The streets named after cities). This is helping to improve the area by adding new nice houses. Habitat recently purchased three more lots in this area from the County.
You can support Habitat locally by sending a check to the local office in Brooksville. Habitat International works to fund the need for affordable housing globally. Should you receive an appeal in the mail from Habitat for Humanity, be sure and check the box to support the Hernando Affiliate to help hardworking families right here in our community have the opportunity to own a home.
The local habitat for humanity affiliate can be found at 19450 Cortez Blvd in Brooksville. You can also call them at (352) 754-1159 or check them out on the web at http://www.habitathernando.org/.