Home Building Plans for 2012
2012 will be a busy year for Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity. We are very excited to have several projects beginning in 2012.
PresBuild II in 2012 is slated to break ground for Kristie and her family in Spring 2012. Pres Build is a collaboration of local Presbyterian churches coming together to provide funding and volunteers to build a home for a hardworking family. This is the 2nd Pres Build in partnership with Fort Collins Habitat.
Thrivent Builds Homes will once again partner with Fort Collins Habitat in 2012. This will be the 5th home built in partnership of Thrivent Builds Homes with the Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity program. Local Lutheran churches will provide funding and volunteers for this build.
The Women Build program continues to focus on fundraising to sponsor a home for a single mother and her family. There are still many opportunities for women in the Fort Collins community to get involved in the program to make a family's dreams come true. The Women Build team’s goal is to raise the needed funds to begin the building of this home in 2012.
To learn more about working with Habitat, check out our Volunteer opportunities. To learn more about the many ways you can support our mission by donating materials or funding, click here.
The Rural Development Loan Program
Habitat for Humanity International recently approved a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture through its Rural Development 502 loan program which encourages and funds mortgages for homeowners in rural communities.
Traditionally Habitat not only built the home, but became the lender holding the 0% interest rate mortgage for 30 years to be paid back for the cost of constructing the home. Utilizing this new Rural Development 502 Program, Habitat builds the home and USDA provides a low-interest mortgage. Habitat receives payment for building the home at closing and can immediately build another home—just as traditional builders do.
“This new partnership with USDA opens new possibilities for Fort Collins Habitat,” said Candace Mayo, Executive Director. Partnering with USDA and Rural Development means that Habitat can build more homes quickly. And, as we all know, the need for affordable housing is great.”
Habitat representatives held community interest meetings and it was apparent that Wellington not only wants to work with Habitat, but has the spirit and volunteer resources to make home building in Wellington a huge success.
“One of the reasons we were reluctant to build in Wellington, was because we thought our current volunteers would not be willing to travel from Fort Collins all the way to Wellington. Not only have we learned that’s not the case, we have learned that there are a huge number of people in Wellington who are ready and willing to pick up a hammer and get to work,” Mayo said.
About the Rural Development 502 Loan Program
Although these mortgages have a small interest rate—1% to 2% depending on a family’s income--Habitat families in the Rural Development program pay no more than 27% of their gross income for their mortgage payment which makes this program extremely affordable for families earning between 35 to 80% of the area median income (AMI).
There are a few other differences from a traditional Habitat mortgage. Habitat loans are for families earning NO GREATER than 50% of the area median income. With the Rural Development Loan Program, the maximum is higher at 80% of the area median income.
To participate in this program, families must still complete sweat equity hours working on their home and the homes of other Habitat families, must attend financial literacy and a home buyer education program taught by Neighbor to Neighbor, a HUD-qualified home buyer education program. “Habitat takes great pride in requiring these programs to ensure that Habitat families are well-prepared for home ownership,” said Candace Mayo, Executive Director. “We want to be certain our Habitat families are successful and have the education and tools they need to be successful.”
Even though Habitat is no longer the lender, the Family Support Committee members have an ongoing relationship with the Habitat homeowners and continue to work with the families over the life of their mortgage to insure success and to assist families should they need Habitat’s help.
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