Families: Apply for a Home

Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit Christian organization that helps low income families or individuals build their own homes. This is a housing ministry financed through private donations and utilizing volunteer labor. Our purpose is to build home with families who could not otherwise afford a home and sell the houses at no profit and no interest. We are looking for poorly-housed people with no way to buy a home on their own, who will help build their own houses and who are responsible about house payments and home maintenance, who will help spread the good news of Habitat for Humanity to the rest of the community.

We are glad you are thinking about applying for a Habitat for Humanity house. Please read this letter carefully to see if you meet our general guidelines:

1. To qualify, you must have a housing need. For example, no indoor plumbing, poor heating, leaks in the roof, overcrowding, (three to a bedroom) homelessness, unsafe or unsanitary conditions or a large portion of monthly income is currently applied to housing costs.
2. You must have lived in the area for at least one year.
3. You must have steady income each month.
4. Total monthly income for a family of four of $1,434 to $2,331. The range varies depending on the number of persons in the family.
5. With your permission, we will verify employment and other income, verify checking and savings account balances, get a statement from your current and previous employers, your current and previous landlords, credit references and we will run a credit check. We will also need the names of three people who know you that we can contact to provide references for you.
6. If you are approved for a home, you will need to work closely with an assigned partner from the Family Partnership Committee and to participate in programs or classes on budgeting, home maintenance, repair, etc…
7. If approved for a home, you will need to work 500 hours of Sweat Equity; scheduling to be determined by the Family Support Committee.
8. Selected families may be eligible to buy a home subject to availability. The family must meet all Sweat Equity and partnering requirements before the house can be purchased. House payments will include taxes and insurance. House payments will in turn be used by Habitat for Humanity to build more homes for other families. This requires that house payments be made on time and failure to make timely payments may result in foreclosure. The Mid-Columbia Habitat for Humanity reserves the right to disqualify any family.

If your family is not initially accepted, we will notify you by mail, and you may reapply during later application periods.

If your family is accepted into the program, please be aware that there will be publicity around your becoming a recipient of Habitat for Humanity.  The growth of Habitat for Humanity depends on media publicity and public support, and we will expect participating families to be part of this effort.  We hope that the joy of home ownership and helping other families to successfully achieve the same, will be worth the possible inconvenience of this publicity.

If you feel that you would qualify for a home according to the above guidelines, we encourage you to fill out and return the application for review.  For more information about how to do this please call  us at 541.386.7982 or 509.493.3720. The information that you provide about your family is confidential, and will be used only for family selection.  The application process usually takes two to three months to complete.

Habitat for Humanity’s goal is to show God’s goodness to those who need a decent and affordable place to call home.  Whether or not you are selected, we hope that you will join us in this challenging and rewarding task.

Click here to download the application form. (PDF file)