A $3.5 million grant will help Habitat for Humanity expand affordable housing

Habitat for Humanity for the St. Vrain Valley will use $3.5 million to buy more land, fix up infrastructure on existing homes and buy others to expand Longmont’s  affordable housing stock, the organization’s executive director, David Emerson, said Tuesday.

St. Vrain Habitat recently received $3.5 million for its work in Longmont, Dacono and Estes Park as part of a $436 million gift to 83 other U.S. Habitat affiliate organizations from American author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, according to a Habitat for Humanity news release.

The best ways to use the “transformational” grant are still to be decided, Emerson said in the news release.  Still, “high priority will be placed on land acquisition, engineering and construction for the infrastructure of current properties, and ramping up Habitat’s home construction and repair program,” Emerson said.

The grant will also help increase housing affordability in Longmont, Emerson said in the news release, which states that the Longmont Housing Affordability Review found no entry level housing options in the city.

Fifty-eight percent of the renters in Boulder County spend more than 30% of their incomes on monthly rent, higher than the national average, the news release states. The city of Longmont has estimated that there is a shortage of 2,900 affordable housing units in the community based on the goals outlined in its regional plan, the news release states.

 According to that plan, 30% of those homes should be for sale. But to date, only 6% of affordable homes are for sale, the news release states.

“We feel incredibly blessed to receive this gift and are so encouraged by M.Scott’s faith in what we do,” Emerson said. “This gift is an acknowledgement of the critical need for affordable homeownership in this community, the great work our supporters have done within the Habitat

model locally, and the strong evidence that homeownership is transformational, not only to the individual homeowner but also the community in which they reside. This gift, in combination with the continued support of our stakeholders places us in a position to increase homeownership opportunities exponentially.”

St. Vrain Habitat was established in 1988 and has completed 115 homes and 53 critical repairs for individuals and families in the St. Vrain and Estes Valleys, according to the news release. Eight homes are currently under construction in Longmont and one home in Dacono for a family that lost their home to a fire.

Two critical repairs are also underway as part of its neighborhood revitalization program in Dacono. The assessed value of homes built by Habitat in the St. Vrain and Estes Valleys since 1988 are worth $33.5 million and 83% of its homes are still occupied by their original homeowners, the news release states.

To volunteer with Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, go to www.stvrainhabitat.org/volunteerism. To bring a group to volunteer, contact St. Vrain Habitat’s volunteer coordinator at 303-682-2485 ext. 106. To learn more about the grant or Habitat for Humanity, go to www.stvrainhabitat.org/mackenziescottgift or contact John Lovell at [email protected].