What is Habitat for Humanity?
Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County is an international faith-based organization dedicated to improving lives by building modest, affordable homes in partnership with our communities and families in need. Habitat for Humanity collaborates with volunteers and partner families to build affordable housing with affordable mortgages.
What Habitat Can Do for You
- Build a house in partnership with you
- Sell you the house with an affordable home loan
- Provide opportunities for you to learn the skills you will need to own and maintain a house
Habitat Houses:
- Are affordable
- Fit the neighborhood
- Create a decent place for a family to live
Habitat Selection Criteria
1) Need
- Substandard living conditions: homes in poor condition
- Overcrowding: more than 2 people per bedroom
- Rent burden: paying more than 40% of monthly income for rent
- Income: Please refer to the Income Guidelines chart below
2020 Maximum Income depends on the number of people in your household, not including fulltime caregivers.
| Persons in household | 1 person | 2 people | 3 people | 4 people | 5 people | 6 people | 7 people | 8 people |
| Sonoma County | $63,650 | $72,750 | $81,850 | $90,900 | $98,200 | $105,450 | $112,750 | $120,000 |
2) Ability to Pay
- Monthly income sufficient to make mortgage payments
- Minimum credit score of 640
- No current liens or judgments
- Debt must not be excessive
- No bankruptcy within the last 4 years
- Consistent payment history
- Applicant(s) must be legal US resident(s) or have permanent residency status
3) Willingness to Partner
- Agreement to complete sweat–equity requirement of 500 hours. *
- Agreement to attend homeowner preparation workshops
- Willingness to take part in public events on behalf of Habitat
* Sweat-equity hours might include working on building your and others’ house(s), attending meetings and helping with public events, such as groundbreakings, and fundraising events.
Restrictions
There are some restrictions on the resale of Habitat for Humanity built homes. Equity accumulation (the increase in value of your home) is not to be a primary goal of homeownership under our program. A Habitat house is a home to live in long-term and not a house to sell for profit. In addition, Homeowners are not allowed to choose the location nor the plan of their home.
Do you meet any of the following criteria?
- Are you or a household member a Wildfire Survivor?
- Are you or a household member an Agricultural Worker?
- Are you or a household member a veteran?
- Are you or a household member a senior (age 62 or older)?
Next Steps
Unfortunately, at this time our application program is closed. We are working towards new projects and will re-open the application process once we have affordable housing projects in the pipeline. Please check back for updated information.
