How the Program Works

HfHMB is not a giveaway program. Habitat homes are purchased by families who make a down payment and pay a monthly mortgage. Mortgages are provided by HfHMB at 0% interest.

Homeowner families are chosen according to their need, their ability to repay the no-profit, zero-interest mortgage, and their willingness to work in partnership with Habitat. Each Habitat homeowner contributes 500 hours in sweat equity towards the construction of a Habitat home.

Generous Giving

Together HfHMB volunteers and families have built more than 34 homes. Currently, Habitat has new projects in incubation and pre-planning stages from Scotts Valley to Watsonville. However, to build new affordable homes in the county, Habitat must purchase suitable properties and fund build-outs up front. We can only fund these projects with the support of contributions from people like you.

Our Approach

There is more to our program than first time affordable home ownership for low and very low-income families. HfHMB has a program whereby partner families attend workshops on budgeting, conflict resolution, home maintenance, repair and landscaping. Partner families acquire skills that will enable them to establish a foundation upon which they can gain economic stability and build a brighter future for their children.

Our approach to providing affordable homeownership is unique in several ways. Our homes are built with mostly volunteer labor, donated funds and materials. Then the homes are sold at cost to qualifying families. Qualified families, selected on an equal opportunity basis, buy these homes at cost, through no-interest mortgages. Each family also contributes 500 hours of volunteer labor or “sweat equity” to the construction of their own home. Mortgage payments received by HfHMB are then reinvested to help fund the construction of future Habitat homes in our community.

Volunteers are critical to the success of our program. Volunteers are involved in construction, fundraising, advocacy, administration, committee work and more. We have a volunteer support base of 250. Without them we could not have built 34 homes over the past 23 years. Our funding sources are well balanced between, corporate, individuals, foundations, civic and faith-based organizations. HfHMB uses government funds only for land acquisition and project infrastructure costs.