As housing availability shrinks and costs rise, families with limited incomes

face housing instability and become at risk for falling into a cycle of poverty.

Start with the home. The rest will follow.

Education

Homeownership offers the stability families need to build self-reliance and a strong foundation for future success. Homeowners are able to escape the anxiety of rent hikes and eviction threats, investing in themselves and creating a legacy for their families. Homeownership gives families with limited incomes the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

Homeownership correlates to a host of positive success indicators:

• Children of homeowners have higher educational attainment.
• Young children of homeowners see higher achievement in math and reading, and exhibit fewer behavioral problems.
• Teenaged children of homeowners are more likely to stay in school.
• Homeowners’ children have higher lifetime annual incomes.

Health

For many Habitat homeowners, their Habitat home is a radical departure from their previously overcrowded, hazardous, or substandard housing.

Studies have shown that stable, affordable housing is closely tied to health:

• Families with affordable housing options are at a lower risk of lead poisoning and exposure to mold and other allergens, which can lead to asthma.
• When a family pays a high portion of its income toward housing, health suffers as less income goes toward healthy food and health care expenses.
• The instability of renting can be disruptive to health care. Children without stable housing are more likely to use costly emergency services.
• Homeowners report greater satisfaction, self-esteem, perceived control over their lives and physical health.

Stability

In a challenging and unstable housing environment, families with limited incomes are often the most vulnerable to the impulses of the market. These hardworking families face a monthly, sometimes daily, struggle to meet their housing costs, while contending with a fear that an eviction, a rent hike or simply an unanticipated expense, will mean displacement.

For families like these, a stable, affordable place to call home means:

• The ability to put down roots in a community
• No disruption in schooling
• An investment in themselves – in their savings, in their education, in their retirement, in their passions, in the generations to come.

Community

Homeowners have a refuge from the whims of an unpredictable rental market. As homeowners move less frequently than renters, they become more deeply ingrained into the fabric of a community. Home ownership lends greater stability to a neighborhood. Homeowners not only build strong, stable lives for their own families, but they also strengthen their community.

Home ownership has strong connections to community:

• Homeowners spend more time and money in maintaining their homes, contributing to the value and image of a community.
• Homeowners are shown to be more involved in their communities, with a higher likelihood of volunteering.
• Homeowners are more likely to be politically active.
  

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  How we work

We invest in people. We empower people – hardworking people with limited incomes – to invest in themselves and generations to come.

Habitat homeowners purchase their homes through a low-cost mortgage and receive financial counseling and educational training to ensure they are prepared for successful home ownership.

Through a range of innovative, sustainable, solution-oriented programs, we make affordable home ownership a reality for more people.

read more about our programs