Habitat for Humanity East Bay

Founded in 1988, Habitat for Humanity East Bay's mission is to create successful homeownership opportunities for families with limited incomes by building sustainable housing and revitalizing neighborhoods.

Why do we exist?

The Bay Area continues to be one of the most expensive regions in the country for real estate. According to a California Association of Realtors’ survey, the median home price in the Bay Area now exceeds $725,000 compared to $712,940 just last year.  Further, only 25% of Bay Area households can afford to purchase home, compared to 29% last year (Source: www.car.org January 2007).

The continued escalation in housing prices results in an ongoing shortage of affordable housing that has reached crisis proportions. 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 Bay Area is an extremely difficult, if not impossible task. As a result, even more families are forced to live in substandard or overcrowded housing conditions.

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

To date, Habitat for Humanity East Bay has completed the construction of 180 single-family homes in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, and funded the construction of over 400 additional habitat homes in countries overseas.

We recently completed a 22-home “green” development in Livermore. The houses were awarded a score of 95 (50 is needed to be considered green) by the GreenPoint Rated program.  The program is part of the Build it Green organization, an independent California organization that removes the guesswork from evaluating a home's green features, allowing home buyers to compare newly built homes on a level playing field.  Going forward we plan to build all of our communities with green design features and our latest development in East Oakland is a candidate to be LEED-ND (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Neighborhood Design).  Whereas other LEED products focus primarily on green building practices, with only a few credits regarding site selection, LEED for Neighborhood Developments would emphasize smart growth aspects of development while still incorporating a selection of the most important green building practices.  Currently, we are building in East Oakland (54 homes), and soon we will begin construction in Alameda (8 homes) and Bay Point (9 homes) as well. 

What have you accomplished?

Habitat for Humanity East Bay addresses the critical need for affordable housing by providing homeownership opportunities for Bay Area families in need, serving low and very-low income families (families whose income is 40% - 80% of median income, as defined by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development) in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.

Depending on criteria for each development, income requirements may range from a minimum of approximately $26,800 for a family of two to a maximum of $77,420 for a family of eight.

Our program provides first time affordable homeownership opportunities for low- and very low-income families with children. In addition to working on their homes through our sweat equity program, families also attend workshops on budgeting, credit repair, conflict resolution, and home maintenance, repair and landscaping. As a result of participating in our program, partner families succeed in purchasing an affordable home and acquire the leadership skills to help engage their community members and revitalize neighborhoods. Homeownership helps families gain economic stability, safety, and a foundation upon which to build a brighter future for their children.  Through their experience in the program, participating partner families gain improved self-esteem and a new awareness of their ability to positively influence the course of their lives and their community.

The Torres Family
Justo and Veronica stress the importance of teaching their children, Neydelin, Alisondra, Tatiana, Bryan, and Justin, that “being responsible participating members of your community is important no matter what your situation.” This belief is demonstrated through their involvement with church, school, coaching the soccer team, food drives, working with adopted children, and providing bilingual skills for the police department, but, in Veronica’s words, “owning a home makes it so much sweeter.” Veronica remembers being able to decorate her own room as a child, and now her daughter will be able to paint her ceilings purple with green turtles!

The Carter Family
Linda Carter, a Call Center Rep for Safe American Credit Union, was born in Berkeley and has lived in the Bay Area her entire life. She and her son, Richard, 13, are excited about moving into their new Habitat home on Edes Ave. in Oakland.

Much of Linda’s free time is spent at her church, Williams Chapel Baptist Church in Oakland. Aside from being an usher for 17 years, she is also the secretary of the Sunday school program and usually pitches in for annual fundraising events.

Richard is also currently an usher at the church. He also spends a lot of time playing basketball and football, and he is a member of his school choir. He hopes to play professional basketball one day, and even though he doesn’t begin high school until this coming fall, he has his sites set on attending UCLA.

“My dream is to see my son graduate college and go on to get his Masters,” Linda said. “I’ve been praying for that all my life.”

Linda has really enjoyed the sweat equity component of the Habitat program. She especially enjoys the Homeowner Association training workshops because she gets to interact with her future neighbors.

“It seems like everyone is really nice,” she said. “I pray we can all get along, and it seems like we’re going to. It’s good to get to know the families before the houses are built.”

Linda is very thankful to Habitat for giving her the opportunity to own her own home and has enjoyed being a part of building the homes of other families.

“Being involved with Habitat is one of the most amazing things that could have happened to me,” she said. “The people are so nice! … I’ve learned quite a bit, especially how to hammer nails. It’s a lot of work, and the [construction staff] is very serious about building the houses. They’re really trying to build a nice house.

“I’m so thankful! Thank God I’ve had this opportunity to be part of Habitat.”

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