OUR VISION

A world where everyone has a decent place to live.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.

ABOUT HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HEMET / SAN JACINTO

Habitat for Humanity Hemet / San Jacinto is part of a global, nonprofit housing organization operated on Christian principles that seeks to put God’s love into action by building homes, communities and hope. Habitat for Humanity Hemet / San Jacinto is dedicated to eliminating substandard housing locally and worldwide through constructing, rehabilitating and preserving homes; by advocating for fair and just housing policies; and by providing training and access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions. Habitat for Humanity was founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a simple, durable place to live in dignity and safety, and that decent shelter in decent communities should be a matter of conscience and action for all.

ALL ARE WELCOME

Habitat for Humanity Hemet / San Jacinto has an open-door policy: All who believe that everyone needs a decent, affordable place to live are welcome to help with the work, regardless of race, religion, age, gender, political views or any of the other distinctions that too often divide people. In short, Habitat welcomes volunteers and supporters from all backgrounds and also serves people in need of decent housing regardless of race or religion. As a matter of policy, Habitat for Humanity International and its affiliated organizations do not proselytize. This means that Habitat will not offer assistance on the expressed or implied condition that people must either adhere to or convert to a particular faith, or listen and respond to messaging designed to induce conversion to a particular faith.

ABOUT HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL

Founded in Americus, Georgia, USA, in 1976, Habitat for Humanity today operates around the globe and has helped build, renovate and repair more than 600,000 decent, affordable houses sheltering more than 3 million people worldwide.  

 

Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit, tax exempt, ecumenical Christian organization dedicated to working with people in need to improve the conditions in which they live. Our major purpose is to build homes for people in substandard housing who can afford to improve their living standards by conventional means. Each selected family must put in 500 hours of “Sweat Equity” or labor on Habitat projects, at least 400 hours on their own home and another 100 on another family’s. The houses are then sold to the family at NO INTEREST-NO PROFIT, with payments within 30% to 40% range of their net income. Habitat for Humanit Hemet / San Jacinto Affiliate is committed to excellence in the community. We feel it is our responsibility to provide leadership and give back to the community as much as possible.

The Hemet/San Jacinto Habitat Affiliate has provided shelter for over 100 people of which 83 are children.

In October 1993 a steering committee was formed to organize a Hemet/San Jacinto Affiliate for Habitat for Humanity. The first Board of Directors was installed in January of 1995. In April of 1996 we officially became an authorized affiliate of Habitat International. The first house was built in conjunction with the City of Hemet and Target Stores, Inc. The house was completed in October 1995 simultaneous with the opening of the new Target Store in Hemet. Our second project was the building of three homes in the City of San Jacinto on Brown Street. These homes were built in conjunction with the City of San Jacinto’s Redevelopment Agency. The project was dedicated in August of 1996.

The Affiliate completed four houses in a fourteen month period. The houses amazed many people including the City officials and inspectors, as they had as few as eleven exceptions on the first inspections. These homes were built by volunteers and the families. At that time we had a President who was a licensed contractor for single family homes.

On October 25, 1997, on Make A Difference Day, we broke ground for the fifth house. This house was built by Home Depot, the family and volunteers. Home Depot donated all of the materials needed for this project. The Family Selection committee identified a family of seven living in a two-bedroom apartment to be the recipients of this house. This home was completed in 1999.

Habitat received two separate donations of parcels of land in San Jacinto in 1997. One of these parcels was used for the Old Second Street house. This house was built in conjunction with the City of San Jacinto and Home Depot. It is for a family of six with a physically challenged 18 year old boy. This home took eighteen months to build.

The seventh and eighth houses were built on land donated by Joe Ziegler and his partner Paul Ruggieri. A single mother with five girls who had been living in motels for almost a year qualified for one and a long established Hemet family of five received the other one. Several churches in the Valley helped with materials for the first house and the banks in the Valley donated funds for the second house.

Land for house number nine was donated by Thomas B. Washburn. This house went to a family of five that had lived in a converted chicken coop for seven years. Funding came from Habitat’s fund raising event called the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon.

The Devine Family in San Jacinto donated land for house number ten to Habitat. The house was sold to a family of six whose father had a back injury. Citibank/Citigroup Foundation provided funding for half of this house.

In the year 2002 we received donation of three parcels of land from the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Hemet. The City of Hemet also paid for the street and improvements plus all of the off-site preparations.  

*2002..... 1 home built, Hemet

*2003.... 2 homes built, Hemet

*2004.... 1 home built, San Jacinto

*2005.... 1 home built, Hemet

*2006.... 1 home built, Hemet

*2007.... 1 home built, Hemet

*2008 to 2012.... 6 homes built in Hemet

 Our sixth home (Latham / Tahquitz project) was completed in 2013.   

 

The Palm Ave Project in Hemet will have two homes when finished.  One of those (our 20th home) was built in 2016, where a family of 7 now resides.  The second home in the Palm Ave Project (our 21st home) is under construction.  We have two qualified families working on their "sweat equity" hours on our Palm Avenue project. 

WHAT IS HABITAT FOR HUMANITY?

In 1976, Millard Fuller had a vision of providing affordable and adequate housing to low income families. In that year, Fuller co-founded Habitat for Humanity International. Because of Habitat’s work over the years, more than 125,000 families in 78 countries have received a simple and decent home built with love.

WHAT ARE HABITAT AFFILIATES?

Habitat for Humanity's work is accomplished at the community level by affiliates -- independent, locally run, nonprofit organizations. Each affiliate coordinates all aspects of Habitat home building in its local area -- fund raising, building site selection, partner family selection and support, house construction and mortgage servicing. Habitat is a worldwide, grass-roots movement. There are more than 1,900 active affiliates in 83 countries, including all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.

HOW DO WE PROVIDE AFFORDABLE HOUSING?

Habitat takes the profit out of housing. Through gracious donations of money, land, building materials and time we are able to keep the cost of construction at a minimum. Without volunteers donating their time for the labor of love our costs would be much higher. The homes are sold to families normally on a 30-year mortgage without interest. The house payments are used toward the building of future Habitat homes.

HOW ARE FAMILIES SELECTED?

Families apply to be considered for home ownership. Each affiliate's Family Selection Committee chooses homeowners based upon the family's housing need, their ability to make their house payments and their willingness to partner with Habitat by putting in up to 500 hours of sweat equity. These family's income normally represent 25 to 50% of the median income in the area. Race, religion, etc. are not factors in the selection process.