The plan is to build homes.
And with it, hope.
A group of community members met last week to begin initiations
for a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity International in San
Benito County.
The plan is to build homes.
And with it, hope.
A group of community members met last week to begin initiations for a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity International in San Benito County.
Habitat, a nonprofit organization with chapters all over the world, works to provide simple, affordable housing conditions for people in need through partnering in home ownership.
Habitat volunteers work with a partnering family to build the home they will eventually purchase, said Dirk Holkeboer, Habitat manager for the Western United States.
“The idea is that the community comes together and they work together to build a better place for everybody,” Holkeboer said. “The families are folks who understand the Habitat program and are willing to get involved – they’re looking for an opportunity to help themselves.”
Holkeboer spoke to a group of about 15 community members who had congregated at World Savings Real Estate Loan Division at the request of Loan Representative Cynthia Holthouse.
After witnessing the community destruction Measure G caused, Holthouse decided something needed to be started that brought the community together for a greater good, she said.
Her tenure at World Savings, a large and consistent donator and contributor to Habitat, afforded her the insight to expend the time and energy to initiate Habitat locally.
“The community has already shown a huge interest and support,” Holthouse said. “They’re just hungry for this.”
Besides the 15 community members who attended last week’s meeting, at least 15 to 20 more people have shown a distinct interest in getting a chapter up and running, Holthouse said.
To bring Habitat into a community, the residents must believe strongly in the premise and be willing to work hard in bringing to fruition their goals, Holkeboer said.
While Habitat for Humanity International provides an outline and a structure, it contributes very little, if any, monetary resources to its outlying chapters.
“It’s a community-based housing effort,” Holkeboer said. “You go into it at the assumption that San Benito builds for San Benito residents.”
Exploring partnerships with both the public and business sector to acquire materials, land and both skilled and unskilled laborers, are all up to the chapters themselves.
“You put that puzzle together however it works out for your community,” he said.
After the home is built, the homeowners purchase the home from Habitat. Most of the partner families have incomes between 30 and 60 percent of the variant median income, which means that while there is some steady income it’s not enough to afford appropriate living conditions, Holkeboer said.
“The investment that Habitat made in that particular house, that becomes the sale price,” he said. “If you take the cost of the sticks and bricks and you add it together, as opposed to the value of the house, there’s probably a pretty good gap.”
The organization also serves as the financiers, extending a mortgage to the family at zero interest for between 20 to 30 years.
Holthouse is now working on processing the formal paperwork and taking the necessary steps needed to officially start Habitat in the county, which she believes will take three to six months to inaugurate.
Compiling a core group of between six and 12 volunteers to head the chapter is her next endeavor, which will be effortless considering the level of support San Benito residents have already shown, she said.
“I have been impressed with the response and somewhat surprised,” she said. “There’s been an outpouring of people interested in Habitat.”
The next informational meeting about a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity International will be held Monday, April 12 at noon at the World Savings Real Estate Loan Divisions Conference room; in the Marketplace at 615 San Benito St., suites B, E and F. Interested volunteers or those seeking more information should contact Cynthia Holthouse at [email protected].
