About Habitat for Humanity East Bay

About Us

Founded in 1988, Habitat for Humanity East Bay was formed as an independent affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International serving Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. Our mission is to create successful homeownership opportunities for families with limited incomes by building sustainable housing and revitalizing neighborhoods.

The Affordable Housing Need

Despite the crash in real estate prices across the country, the San Francisco Bay Area continues to be one of the most expensive and least affordable housing markets in the United States. Fewer than 40% of East Bay families can afford to purchase a home.

For hard-working families whose earnings place them in the low to very-low income classification, finding a decent, affordable place to live in the San Francisco Bay Area is an extremely difficult, if not impossible task.

Who Habitat Serves

Over the past 20 years Habitat for Humanity East Bay has served 219 low and very-low income families in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties by providing affordable homeownership opportunities to low-income families who meet three criteria:

• Earn an income between 40%-80% of area median income, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• Have a need for housing.
• Are willing to partner with Habitat for Humanity and contribute 500 sweat equity hours to the construction of their own home, or their neighbor's home.

Based on these criteria our volunteer-based Family Selection Committee recommends families that will work to build a community of active homeowners.

How Habitat Works

Habitat for Humanity East Bay approaches the challenge of providing affordable homeownership opportunities to low-income families in an innovative way. Affordable homes are built using a large amount of volunteer labor, donated funds and materials. Then the homes are sold at affordable prices to qualifying low-income families.

 

Qualified families, selected on an equal opportunity basis, buy Habitat East Bay homes at affordable prices, through 30-year zero-interest mortgages. In addition, each family contributes hundreds of hours of volunteer labor or “sweat equity” to the construction of their home. This "sweat equity" or "self-help" component of the program is a major investment on the part of the homeowner, and increases homeowner pride of ownership. "Sweat equity" can consist of home building as well as community projects and leadership development classes. Once the homes are sold to the partner families, the mortgage payments received by Habitat are then reinvested to help fund the construction of future Habitat homes.

Green Building

Habitat for Humanity East Bay builds homes that are not only affordable, but also sustainable. Habitat East Bay builds using comprehensive green design. Many people think of solar panels when they think of green building, but the reality is that it encompasses much more. Green building is a whole house design that takes into account energy efficiency, smart use of building materials, water usuage, and much more. Habitat East Bay builds green to take better care of the environment, Habitat homeowners and volunteers.

Habitat for Humanity East Bay was the first Habitat affiliate in the Bay Area to begin building green in 2000 and have completed over 60 green homes in the area. As one of the leading Habitat affiliates in affordable green building in the U.S. we plan to continue innovating the way that affordable housing can be built green.

Our homes have been certified through California’s GreenPoint Rated system and some through the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification system, demostrating that we are building to stringent national green building standards.

Volunteering

Volunteers play a critical role in our programs, and are involved in every aspect of our work, including:

• Home construction
• Work to select families
• Support partner families in community building efforts
• Drive fundraising efforts
• Work on advocacy and community outreach
• And more...

Habitat for Humanity East Bay recruits large numbers of volunteers to help construct Habitat East Bay homes, and in so doing strives to promote volunteerism as a collective community value. To date, over 35,000 volunteers have contributed 500,000 hours to help construct homes built by Habitat for Humanity East Bay. An average of 200 volunteers participate in the program every week.

Financial Responsibility

Habitat for Humanity East Bay is proud to have a record of financial stewardship with the private funding we received from individuals, corporations, foundations, and faith organizations. We also receive grants and no-interest redevelopment agency loans from local government sources.

Habitat East Bay works hard to ensure that we use donor funds efficiently and wisely. That is why 87 cents of every donor dollar goes directly to supporting our building programs.

You can see more financial details by viewing our 2009 Annual Report, or downloading our Audited Financial Statement.