Skip to content

Since its founding in 1987, Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity has built affordable housing in communities throughout Albuquerque. Our mission is much bigger than building homes. We believe that everyone deserves a decent and affordable place to call home. We build community by providing low-income families the opportunity to purchase a home so they can find stability and build a safe and secure foundation for their family’s future.

Habitat for Humanity International

Vision:
A world where everyone has a decent place to live.
Mission:
Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.

Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity

Vision:
No one in Greater Albuquerque area will live in sub-standard housing.
Mission:
Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity builds community – one home, one family at a time – by making it possible for low-income families to own decent, affordable homes.

We Take Pride in our Transparency

We cherish the impact we have on our local community. Beyond words and slogans, we strive to also provide hard analytical data as to who, where, why, and how we are continuing to carry out our continuing mission to serve the greater Albuquerque area.

We are excited to provide the public with the opportunity to view our latest Impact Survey review. Inside, you’ll find cutting-edge, third-party research data on the direct community impact we have involving public health, the families we serve, the effect we have on education, our continuing financial stability, and how we are continuing the provide tangible hope in New Mexico.

Click HERE to read our latest Impact Survey report.

children playing during a habitat build day

Why Habitat Builds Affordable Homes

Strong, stable homes help build strong, stable communities. A decent place to live removes barriers to success that might have been a part of a family’s life for generations. In fact, compared to children of renters, children of homeowners are 116% more likely to graduate from college and 25% more likely to graduate from high school. Further, children of homeowners are 59% more likely to become homeowners themselves (Cincinnati Office of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, 2003).

We build homes to ensure that people like Tina can better their lives and the lives of their children. Tina is a smart, ambitious 37-year-old single mother with a 12-year-old daughter. Just eight years ago, when Tina applied to become a Habitat homeowner, she lived in a crime-ridden apartment complex and made a living by providing day care services in her home in order to be with her daughter until she was old enough to start school.

 

Since becoming a Habitat homeowner, Tina has completed her undergraduate degree at UNM and today she is in her fourth year of teaching at an elementary school. She sold her Habitat home to purchase a larger home closer to the school where she teaches and to Albuquerque Academy where her daughter attends on scholarship. Because Habitat homes have a zero percent interest rate, Tina was able to realize some $20,000 when she sold her home back to Habitat, and used the money for a down payment on her new home. Tina says she would not be where she is today without the opportunity that Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity provided for her and her daughter.

volunteer at the job site

How Habitat Builds Affordable Homes

How we build is just as important as what we build. Habitat houses are built with a contribution of five hundred volunteer hours of “sweat equity” labor on the part of the soon to be Homeowner. By investing themselves in the building process, Habitat families gain self-reliance, self-esteem and new skills.

 

Working side-by-side with Habitat families, countless volunteers and sponsors invest time, money, materials, and their expertise into building affordable homes. Habitat volunteers, donors and business partners gain new relationships, which extend far beyond the immediate impact of building a house together. Habitat brings together people from all walks of life, with varied skills and economic backgrounds to achieve a common goal of service to others.

Owning a Habitat Home

Families who are successful in completing the requirements for a Habitat Home receive a no-interest mortgage on a house built to accommodate their family size and budget. A decent place to live and an affordable mortgage create a situation where homeowners can save money, invest in education, pursue opportunity and have more financial stability.

The sale of Habitat houses is structured to give Habitat a First Right of Refusal to buy back the homes we build, which assures continued affordability of these homes beyond the first owner. The down payments and monthly mortgage payments are reinvested and used to build more houses through a revolving fund. In this way, we can ensure that Habitat homes will continue to meet the need for affordable housing in the Greater Albuquerque area.