Housatonic Habitat for Humanity

What is Housatonic Habitat for Humanity?
Housatonic Habitat for Humanity is a local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International.  As such, we are independently governed, responsible for all aspects of Habitat home building in the greater Danbury area.  This includes building site selection, partner family selection & support, house construction and fundraising.

Housatonic Habitat for Humanity was chartered in 1991 upon the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a simple, decent, affordable place to live in dignity and safety.  We seek to eliminate poverty housing from the greater Danbury area and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.  Accordingly, we mobilize the local community in order to provide responsible home ownership opportunities to low income families.

Our 19 homes have changed 11 different neighborhoods – replaced dangerous eyesores and vacant lots with warm and inviting homes.  They have added more than $2.5 million to the city’s tax base. Well over $50k is paid in property taxes each year.

What towns does Housatonic Habitat for Humanity serve?
We serve the towns of Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, New Canaan, New Fairfield, Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston and Wilton.

How does Habitat for Humanity work?
Each year, hundreds of people volunteer their time to help build houses under the expert supervision of our construction supervisor, who teaches unskilled volunteers three days a week.

With this volunteer labor and donations of money and materials, Habitat builds and rehabilitates simple, decent homes with the help of our homeowner (partner) families.  Habitat is not a giveaway program. In addition to a down payment and the monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest 400 hours of their own labor, called “sweat equity”, into building their Habitat home and the homes of others.  Habitat houses are sold to partner families at no profit and self-financed with no interest affordable loans.  

The cost of each house is covered by foundations, individuals, corporations, organizations and congregations. No government funding is accepted, except to cover costs of site acquisition/preparation and infrastructure.  

How are partner families selected?
Once we have a plot of land or a home that needs to be rehabilitated, the Family Selection committee swings into action by publicizing to the community a home is being made available.  Community members are invited to an information meeting which gives a brief background of our organization and the process of homeowner selection.  Those interested are asked to complete a confidential questionnaire, which is then carefully screened by the committee.  After a rigorous interview process, the Family Selection committee chooses homeowners based on their level of need, their willingness to become partners in the program and their ability to repay the no-interest loan.   We follow a nondiscriminatory policy of family selection.  Neither race nor religion is a factor in choosing the families who receive Habitat houses.  Eligible families earn less than 60% of the median income for the greater Danbury area.  Habitat is the only organization providing home ownership opportunities for this income group.

More Than Building Houses
HHH is becoming an important construction company -- but Habitat is much more than that. We are responsible for:

• land acquisition
• family selection
• residential construction
• mortgage lending, servicing & property closings
• family support & advocacy
• volunteer recruitment, management & nurture
• fundraising & development
• public relations
• business management, accounting & administration
• event planning (house dedications, special events, fundraisers)
• Christian ministry