MINNEAPOLIS – April 22, 2008) - Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International will be in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area on Tuesday, April 29 to highlight the work of Habitat for Humanity, including the groundbreaking work of urban affiliates like Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. He will speak at a wall raising event at the TCHFH construction site at 644-656 Dale Street North in St. Paul at noon. This year, TCHFH is constructing seven new affordable townhomes on Dale Street in the Frogtown neighborhood through its homeownership program.
The Dale Street townhomes reflect the trend of Habitat for Humanity’s work in urban areas where scarce available land means building multi-unit homes. Building townhomes results in more complicated projects and designs, requiring multiple partners to get the job done.
Lead sponsors for the Dale Street project include Thrivent Builds and Wells Fargo. Key community partners include AmeriCorps, the City of St. Paul, Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation, Minnesota Housing, and the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (S.H.O.P.).
In addition, TCHFH will rehabilitate additional area homes through its “A Brush With Kindness” program, a neighborhood outreach service which offers painting, landscaping and repair to homes for existing low-income homeowners.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Fast Facts about TCHFH
Community Need for Affordable Housing
In 2006, the median price for a home in the Twin Cities was $242,000. The annual household income needed to afford that house is $82,901.
For every family that Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity serves through our Homebuyer program, we must turn ten eligible families away.
On average each year:
900 families attend eligibility/orientation sessions.
660 eligible families complete applications for Habitat homes.
50 applicants with the highest need are selected to buy a Habitat home.
The Families
Approximately 50 families move into Habitat homes each year.
As of January 2008, 687 families have purchased Habitat for Humanity homes in the Twin Cities.
We sell to families that make less than 50 percent of the area median income.
The average Habitat family income is $28,500.
On average, a Habitat family has 6 members in the household.
The Homes
Habitat homes include single-family homes, twin homes, and multiple-unit homes.
The average cost to build a Twin Cities Habitat home is $182,100.
The typical Habitat home is 1,400 square feet with three bedrooms.
Faced with rising land and construction costs, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity is changing its building model. Just four years ago, 65 percent of TCHFH homes were single-family. Today, nearly 65 percent of our homes are multi-unit.
Support for Habitat
Volunteerism
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity engages over 20,000 volunteers a year.
On any given day during our peak construction period, over 270 volunteers are working on up to 20 homes.
Volunteer groups who are interested in building a home are asked to assist in providing the resources essential to constructing the homes.
Donor support each year
Over 11,000 individuals donate to TCHFH
Nearly 300 corporations support TCHFH
Over 300 faith-based groups support TCHFH
Approximately 2,500 In-Kind donations
Homeownership Preservation
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity is committed to producing, preserving and maintaining affordable homeownership in the Twin Cities. In addition to offering affordable homebuyer opportunities, Twin Cities Habitat offers two programs that help families keep their homes.
The Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Program offers assistance to residents of the City of Minneapolis, as well as all TCHFH homeowners, regardless of where they reside in the metro. The program provides intensive in-person counseling, phone counseling and referrals, negotiations with lenders, and financial assistance.
TCHFH’s Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Program serves 150 applicants/families each year, and provides phone counseling to 500 individuals.
The foreclosure rate among Habitat homeowners is less than 2 percent.
A Brush With Kindness is a neighborhood outreach program offering painting, landscaping and minor repairs to homes for qualifying low-income homeowners. Priority is given low-income elderly, disabled, or single-parent homeowners.
Each year, A Brush With Kindness serves an average of 70 families and engages over 2,000 volunteers.
In 2006, the median price for a home in the Twin Cities was $242,000. The annual household income needed to afford that house is $82,901.
For every family that Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity serves through our Homebuyer program, we must turn ten eligible families away.
On average each year:
900 families attend eligibility/orientation sessions.
660 eligible families complete applications for Habitat homes.
50 applicants with the highest need are selected to buy a Habitat home.
The Families
Approximately 50 families move into Habitat homes each year.
As of January 2008, 687 families have purchased Habitat for Humanity homes in the Twin Cities.
We sell to families that make less than 50 percent of the area median income.
The average Habitat family income is $28,500.
On average, a Habitat family has 6 members in the household.
The Homes
Habitat homes include single-family homes, twin homes, and multiple-unit homes.
The average cost to build a Twin Cities Habitat home is $182,100.
The typical Habitat home is 1,400 square feet with three bedrooms.
Faced with rising land and construction costs, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity is changing its building model. Just four years ago, 65 percent of TCHFH homes were single-family. Today, nearly 65 percent of our homes are multi-unit.
Support for Habitat
Volunteerism
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity engages over 20,000 volunteers a year.
On any given day during our peak construction period, over 270 volunteers are working on up to 20 homes.
Volunteer groups who are interested in building a home are asked to assist in providing the resources essential to constructing the homes.
Donor support each year
Over 11,000 individuals donate to TCHFH
Nearly 300 corporations support TCHFH
Over 300 faith-based groups support TCHFH
Approximately 2,500 In-Kind donations
Homeownership Preservation
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity is committed to producing, preserving and maintaining affordable homeownership in the Twin Cities. In addition to offering affordable homebuyer opportunities, Twin Cities Habitat offers two programs that help families keep their homes.
The Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Program offers assistance to residents of the City of Minneapolis, as well as all TCHFH homeowners, regardless of where they reside in the metro. The program provides intensive in-person counseling, phone counseling and referrals, negotiations with lenders, and financial assistance.
TCHFH’s Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Program serves 150 applicants/families each year, and provides phone counseling to 500 individuals.
The foreclosure rate among Habitat homeowners is less than 2 percent.
A Brush With Kindness is a neighborhood outreach program offering painting, landscaping and minor repairs to homes for qualifying low-income homeowners. Priority is given low-income elderly, disabled, or single-parent homeowners.
Each year, A Brush With Kindness serves an average of 70 families and engages over 2,000 volunteers.
TC Habitat makes the AP
As foreclosures loom and real estate prices fall across the Twin Cities, the nonprofit group Habitat for Humanity is making the best of the situation by buying up land and vacant houses at bargain prices."It's a sad situation, this market, but we can't lose sight of the opportunity within it," said Sue Haigh, president of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat has been buying property within stalled developments in cities it otherwise couldn't afford, such as Chaska, Ramsey or Woodbury. The group, whose mission is affordable home ownership, is also buying four vacant houses in St. Paul this month.The work reflects what other Habitat chapters are doing around the country, said Stephen Seidel, Habitat International's director of field operations.At the peak of the real estate boom about three years ago, lots in a Chaska development called Clover Field cost more than $60,000 apiece. In the past year, Habitat bought lots there for $45,000 and $50,000. In Hopkins, the organization is buying two more traditional single-family lots from the city for $75,000 each, down from the list price of $89,000.The nonprofit and others like it are attempting to lock up as many lots as they can at the lower prices before the market rebounds, and the state is helping. In November, the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency awarded Habitat a $1.4 million grant to purchase 28 to 35 parcels of land in Carver and Scott counties.In most cases, Habitat won't build on a parcel until owning it for more than a year. The purchases are part of a new approach it and the state call "strategic land acquisition.""When the market does turn around, we'll already have in place land for affordable housing, which in growing suburban communities is so difficult to get," said Tim Marx, state Housing Finance commissioner.The finance agency recently accepted applications for its next round of grants, and Habitat is just one of a number of applicants seeking funding for that purpose, he said. Others include local affordable housing enterprises such as Chaska Community Land Trust, which makes home-ownership affordable by selling the house but keeping the land.Although it still works in the core cities, since 2007 Habitat has striven to build 75 percent of its houses in the suburbs, where schools are good, the job market's growing and affordable housing is often needed.Though Habitat tends to build new housing, it also operates rehabilitation and repair programs and will likely fix up, rather than raze and rebuild, vacant houses that are in good shape.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Habitat has been buying property within stalled developments in cities it otherwise couldn't afford, such as Chaska, Ramsey or Woodbury. The group, whose mission is affordable home ownership, is also buying four vacant houses in St. Paul this month.The work reflects what other Habitat chapters are doing around the country, said Stephen Seidel, Habitat International's director of field operations.At the peak of the real estate boom about three years ago, lots in a Chaska development called Clover Field cost more than $60,000 apiece. In the past year, Habitat bought lots there for $45,000 and $50,000. In Hopkins, the organization is buying two more traditional single-family lots from the city for $75,000 each, down from the list price of $89,000.The nonprofit and others like it are attempting to lock up as many lots as they can at the lower prices before the market rebounds, and the state is helping. In November, the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency awarded Habitat a $1.4 million grant to purchase 28 to 35 parcels of land in Carver and Scott counties.In most cases, Habitat won't build on a parcel until owning it for more than a year. The purchases are part of a new approach it and the state call "strategic land acquisition.""When the market does turn around, we'll already have in place land for affordable housing, which in growing suburban communities is so difficult to get," said Tim Marx, state Housing Finance commissioner.The finance agency recently accepted applications for its next round of grants, and Habitat is just one of a number of applicants seeking funding for that purpose, he said. Others include local affordable housing enterprises such as Chaska Community Land Trust, which makes home-ownership affordable by selling the house but keeping the land.Although it still works in the core cities, since 2007 Habitat has striven to build 75 percent of its houses in the suburbs, where schools are good, the job market's growing and affordable housing is often needed.Though Habitat tends to build new housing, it also operates rehabilitation and repair programs and will likely fix up, rather than raze and rebuild, vacant houses that are in good shape.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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