Do I Qualify For A Habitat Partnership Home?
Our homeowner families are typically first-time homebuyers whose earnings are well below the area's median income. Still, Habitat homes are not given away. Homeowners contribute hours of "sweat equity" - their own labor - in the building on their house and other Habitat homes. They also attend home ownership classes and involve themselves in meaningful service to the community. They are fully invested partners in the building process.

Approved partner families must meet three requirements beyond the financial qualifications:

1. Have the ability to repay the mortgage (This is a no-interest, no-profit loan).
2. Have an established need for housing (This is they must be in substandard housing).
3. Have the willingness to partner (Sweat equity, personal investment, etc.).

Families in need of decent shelter must attend a Habitat 101 meeting where they can obtain an application to become a homeowner. Consult the "What's Going On (News and Events) page" on this website for the timing and place of the next Habitat 101 meeting.

Contact Shannon Erwin at serwin@waltoncountyhabitat.org or (850) 835-0067 for more information.

 

Touching Stories from Walton County

Home #20 - Completed.

Home #19 - Completed.

Home #18 - Single Mom with two young daughters under 7 lived in substandard one bedroom house with unsafe electrical connections and make shift plumbing arrangements. Recipient is developing a career with a major north county retailer, and the house provides stability for her family.

Home #17 - Mother and Father, plus one son and one daughter both under 10, lived in substandard house that was almost impossible to heat or cool. Recipient had major medical problems since birth. Recipient's father came to Defuniak Springs for entire build season and other members of family volunteered through out the build process. House was ADA-designed and features were added to assist the mobility of the recipient.

Home #16 - Mother and Father, plus three high school-aged children, lived in a substandard narrow house trailer with only two bedrooms. Recipient has a disease similar to Lou Gehrig's and faces continuing and escalating medical issues. None of the family had their own bedrooms, and the living conditions were very difficult. HFH house was a four bedroom with ADA features and provision for wheel chair access. The well for the house was shallow and very near the septic. HFH was able to get the public water utility to run city water about a quarter of a mile to serve the house so that the well could be downgraded for irrigation.

Home #15 - One of the most moving cases involved a single grandfather with seven grandchildren living in a converted office trailer. Social Services gave him a choice of having his grandchildren from two siblings put in foster homes or come live with the recipient. Over the course of a handful of days, the recipient went from living alone to having seven grandchildren from ages 7-18. He managed in the trailer for several years until his granddaughter became a teenager. He wanted her to have her own room, and this lead to him applying to HFH for a house. HFH built a four bedroom house for the family, and volunteers provided at their own cost much of the furnishings for the granddaughter's room.

 
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