Unlike other loan programs, your approval is not credit score driven. A comprehensive evaluation of your personal financial situation, including income and monthly budget, is evaluated to determine your ability to make an affordable monthly mortgage payment. Additionally, families interested in purchasing a home through Bay Area Habitat must meet certain criteria.
Basic Requirements
1. Need for shelter
Must have a legitimate need for housing. For example, broken plumbing, poor heating, leaks in the roof, overcrowding, unsafe or unsanitary conditions or dislocated as a result of a natural disaster.
2. Willingness to partner
Members of your household are required to give 300 hours of “sweat equity” towards building your home as well as other Habitat homes, and are also required to attend specific financial budgeting and homeownership courses. 150 of those hours must be completed before being assigned a specific house address.
3. Ability to pay
Your family’s gross income must fall within the guidelines of the chart below. Income includes wages, social security, food stamps, disability and child support.
Other requirements include, but are not limited to, U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, an agreement to complete sweat equity hours, and current employment and ability to make monthly payments and a one-time closing payment.
APPLICATION PROCESS
After applying, our family selection committee will review your application.
The Family Selection Committee meets monthly to review Partner Family Applications. This committee carries out home visits and interviews with the applicants, and makes the appropriate recommendations for families they believe are qualified for the Habitat for Humanity program.
Our Family Selection Committee members get to know our prospective homeowners well and make informed yet unbiased decisions based on their understanding of each family’s needs. Bay Area Habitat for Humanity-Houston, inc. follows a nondiscriminatory policy of family selection.
Even prior to Hurricane Harvey, we realized the need for assisting low income homeowners in addressing critical home repairs. We have secured some limited funding and want to reach out to the communities we serve and do what we can to help with this problem.
We define critical home repairs as issues that are vital and necessary to fix to ensure the home occupants safety and/or health. This list can include many issues but BAHFH will start with the following (on a case by case basis); exterior doors, siding, roofing, HVAC, windows, and hot water heaters.
We will not be doing repairs inside beltway 8 or in another affiliate’s service area.