Welcome to our blog!
We are Habitat for Humanity of Greater Garland (HFHGG). We serve in Garland, Sachse, and Rowlett, Texas. Our mission is to put God’s love into action by bringing people together to build homes, communities, and hope. How do we do this? We build new homes, repair existing homes, and sell lightly used home and construction products within our community in order to serve those who need it the most.
What is Habitat for Humanity?
Since the nonprofit’s founding in 1976, Habitat for Humanity has been partnering with families and communities to build homes for those who could otherwise not afford it. In 1993, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Garland became one of the 1,400 affiliates worldwide that share in HFH’s common vision: a world where everyone has a safe, affordable, and decent place to live. In the last 26 years, HFHGG has worked with over 80 families and countless volunteers to bring this vision to life. We are working towards changing the stigma of affordable housing, and creating communities that can rely on one another.
What does the Home Repair Program look like?
Our Home Repair Program, unlike our Home Build Program, works with existing homes and homeowners in Garland, Rowlett, and Sachse. This program aims to alleviate substandard living conditions, and to preserve existing affordable housing for homeowners through critical home repairs and accessibility modifications. These repairs can give homeowners the freedom and ability to stay in their current home, improve their health and safety in their homes, and allow them to age in place with dignity. If an applicant is accepted, we will come to their home and complete an assessment of their construction needs. Then, we will get in touch with local contracting firms to outline a blueprint of how we can repair the home with both time and financial efficiency. Once we complete the repair, there is no cost to the homeowner! All we ask of our homeowners is to answer a few short follow-up questions with us and to donate designated hours with us (what we call Sweat Equity Hours).
What are Sweat Equity Hours?
Sweat Equity Hours can be fulfilled in a variety of ways: answering phones at our Garland office, working at our ReStore location, volunteering on a future building or repair project, or any other way that would maximize your potential as a volunteer! We’ve had people volunteer as photographers, meal makers, and more.
What is the ReStore?
The ReStore provides gently-used furniture, appliances, building materials, and home goods at a discounted price, and the proceeds are used to pay our full-time staff members. At the ReStore, volunteers work alongside our staff and Habitat homeowners in a variety of ways: greeting and assisting customers, accepting donations, sorting, preparing, and moving items on the sales floor, maintaining a clean and safe work environment, and much more!
What does our Home Build Program look like? Our Home Build Program aims to find people who are living in substandard low-income housing that are seeking and financially ready for a permanent home. Habitat offers a hand up, not a hand out. Becoming a Habitat homeowner has three basic requirements: demonstrated need for housing, willingness to partner, and ability to pay. If an applicant is accepted, we will build their house for them and provide them with a low-interest loan to pay us back overtime. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Garland accepts applications for home-ownership on an annual basis. If you are interested in home-ownership, please look at the criteria here to self-determine whether or not you think you qualify for home-ownership through our program.
How can you help HFHGG?
Like many nonprofits, Habitat for Humanity would be nothing without our volunteers. We rely on volunteers to accomplish every single house that we build or repair. Our volunteers come with a variety of different skills and makeups. Some volunteers may help us declutter the home of a hoarder, while other volunteers may help us crawl under a house to check its foundation. They may spend their time with a paint brush in their hand, or a power tool. Whatever you like and whatever your skills are, we’d love to have you volunteer with us. There is no construction of volunteer experience needed! If you’re willing to help, we will find you a job that you can thrive in — and hopefully have a blast while you’re at it. If you’d like to volunteer with us, click here or email our volunteer coordinator camryn@garlandhabitat.org. Volunteer hours can be used for college applications, scholarship submissions, court sentences, or career resumes. Not only will volunteering will benefit both us and you, but we really think that you’ll have a great time doing it.
Want to help, but don’t have the time to volunteer? We are always accepting donations from the generous givers of our community. While many of our projects are funded by federal, state, local, and private grants, many are funded purely by donation. Examples of projects funded strictly by donation include exterior painting projects, landscaping, fence replacement, and more. If you’re interested in donating to one of these projects, click here. You can see what projects we are working on now, and choose whichever cause calls you to give.
Thanks!
Thanks for taking the time to learn about HFHGG! If you’ve got any questions, contact peter@garlandhabitat.org. To see if you are eligible for our Home Repair Program or Home Build Program click here. If you know someone who may benefit from our services, send them this blog link! We are dedicated to serving everyone in our community. This is the first ever HFHGG blog post, but there will be many more! This blog will mainly focus on our Home Repair program, but we may also touch on our Home Build Program, our Volunteer Program, and our ReStore. If you’ve got questions for us or a topic that you’d like discussed on this blog, email peter@garlandhabitat.org.