What It Means To Be a Partner Family
Homeowners not only receive a house but much more. Habitat families report improved education and skills, feeling of civic responsibility and respect for community, sense of pride in accomplishment, greater financial independence and breaking the cycle of poverty. The home is like the light at the end of the tunnel, as one homeowner put it. Others have stated that it is a new lease on life. The required sweat equity hours prove to be a benefit as well, helping to build a sense of pride. The homeowners become part of their housing solution while also building the community and helping others in their similar situation.
How do I become a Habitat Homeowner?
Becoming a Habitat Homeowner is a two year process from application to move-in. Applications are taken once a year and reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The basic requirements for becoming a Homeowner are:
- Need
- Ability to Pay
- Willingness to Partner with Habitat
Ability to Pay: Mesilla Valley Habitat qualifies families based on credit (including credit patterns, types of debt, and attempts to make payments) and income. We can only build for families making between 35% and 60% of the median income in Las Cruces. This income percentage varies with the number of people living in the home.
Habitat homes are sold–not given–to families using a normal mortgage, including taxes and insurance. The difference in cost between a Habitat home and buying a new home on the open market is that Habitat for Humanity doesn’t charge interest on the mortgage.
Homeowners pay a $500 down payment at move-in, and monthly mortgage payments of approximately $500/month.
Willingness to Partner: Each Habitat Partner Family agrees to contribute 250/500 “sweat equity hours” to the process. In the first two years of partnership with Habitat (or before they move in to their home), families contribute to the needs of the organization as well as the construction of Habitat homes–theirs and other families’.
The Benefits of Homeownership
Homeownership Builds Successful Children:
Compared to the children of renters (of the same age, income, race, etc.), the children of homeowners:
✓ are 25% more likely to graduate from high school
✓ are 116% more likely to graduate from college
✓ are 20% less likely to become teenage mothers
✓ are 59% more likely to own a home within 10 years of moving from their parent’s household
✓ have 9% higher math scores
✓ have 7% higher reading scores
✓ have 3% fewer behavior problems
✓ save taxpayers an estimated $34,000 in public expenditures (i.e. the cost of juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancy, etc.) that would have been spent had they remained in rented housing
Homeownership Builds Stronger Communities:
Compared to renters (of the same age, income, race, etc.), homeowners:
✓ are 28% more likely to repair or improve their homes
✓ are 12% more likely to maintain a garden outside their homes
✓ are 10% more likely to report they have worked to solve local problems
✓ live 4 times longer in a community
✓ are 11% more likely to know who represents them in Congress
✓ are 9% more likely to know who their school-board representative is
✓ are 15% more likely to vote
Homeownership Builds Stronger Families:
Compared to renters (of the same age, income, race, etc.), homeowners:
✓ are 10% more likely to attend church
✓ are 16% more likely to belong to parent-teacher organizations, block clubs, etc.
✓ read newspapers 1.3 times more often
✓ are less likely to have alcohol and substance-abuse problems
Source: Cincinnati office of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, April 2003
