Habitat for Humanity of Smith County

Habitat for Humanity of Smith County addresses the lack of decent, affordable housing by (1) building new homes and selling them at an affordable mortgage to first-time home buyers and (2) repairing and/or renovating existing homes of low-income homeowners who cannot afford to maintain their homes. Many of these homeowners are seniors, veterans and the disabled. Our goals include (1) increasing the number of new homeowners by making home ownership possible for people in need of affordable housing and (2) keeping low-income families in their homes by making repairs needed for health and/or safety.

Habitat impacts the lives of Smith County’s seniors, veterans and disabled residents who live below the poverty level and live in unsafe or unhealthy homes. Many of these homeowners retired after working for our school districts, medical facilities, and other businesses that provide services our community depends upon. Now that the City of Tyler no longer provides home repair services, most of these individuals have nowhere else to turn but Habitat.

In 2018, an average of 30 individuals called Habitat for help every month. Of those over 70% advanced past the first stage of the qualification process. Some were helped immediately due to grant funds awarded for their specific need, while others were placed on a waiting list. Without help from our ReHabitat program, these homeowners will continue to live in unhealthy, unsafe living conditions.

The repairs we provide through the ReHabitat program are primarily funded by grants while program administrative costs are rarely covered. We diligently look for funding sources that will help us eliminate the deplorable living conditions our community’s seniors, veterans, and disabled homeowners currently live in. The United Way of Smith County remains an important source for helping us cover our ReHabitat administrative expenses.

Habitat for Humanity of Smith County became an affiliate of Habitat International in 1989. Our mission is to build safe, decent, affordable housing and offer the opportunity of homeownership to qualified, low income, Smith County residents. As of April 2019, we have completed 107 homes.

HFHSC currently offers five programs: New Construction, Deconstruction (salvages materials form renovations and demolitions), ReHabitat Critical Repair, A Brush with Kindness (utilizes volunteers to paint homes in low-income neighborhoods), and the ReStore home improvement center.

In 2016, the efficiency of our New Construction program attracted the attention of Habitat International. They sent a consultant who spent several days observing volunteers in our workshop as they pre-built the interior and exterior walls of a house. The consultant reported his findings back to International so information could be shared with other affiliates about how they, too, can make their construction process more efficient.

Habitat ReStore opened in 2000 to help fund operational expenses through the sale of donated materials and merchandise. By accepting donations of reusable building materials and home improvement items, ReStore proudly offers an environmentally safer option to overfilling our landfills.

Habitat ReStore also partners with other organizations by providing injured employees an opportunity to fulfill Workers Compensation “Transitional Back-to-Work” requirements, as well as opportunities for volunteerism and completing Community Service hours.

In 2009, we began our ReHabitat critical repair program. This program provides critical health and/or safety repairs in the homes of Smith County’s low-income seniors, veterans and disabled homeowners. Some of these needs are as simple as addressing accessibility issues, while others require the demolition of an existing home and building an entirely new one in its place.

ReHabitat’s Emergency Program was established in 2013. This program allows us to assist families with immediate, urgent health and/or safety needs. While the majority of ReHabitat projects are funded by grants, the Emergency program is funded primarily through the generosity of individuals.

With each grant having its own set of strict qualification requirements, the Emergency program offers flexibility in that HFHSC is not limited by any grantor’s specific, targeted recipient, such as veterans only, women only, or geographic location. We can qualify applicants based upon need and our own internal guidelines.

By addressing needs such as exposed wiring, rotting floors and ceilings, collapsed roofs, and backed up septic and plumbing, ReHabitat has proudly improved the lives of almost 1,000 individuals since its inception.

In 2018 there were 3 outcomes measured in HFHSC’s critical repair program: 1. Local economic impact made by home repairs and renovations; 2. Comparison and analysis of number of homes renovated or critical repairs completed compared to two different bases [all Habitat affiliates and TX affiliates], as well as local impact; 3. Measurement of Client satisfaction upon completion of project.

Outcome 1 of local economic impact: Habitat International provides a worksheet for analysis of the critical repair program. Each dollar spent on home rehabilitation continues to flow through the local economy. The indicator calculates the original investment through the Purchase of Goods and Services by the developer, construction worker, resident and local government. The tool measures the economic benefits of specific housing development projects.

Outcome 2 utilizes baseline comparison of number of homes renovated or having critical repairs to all US Habitat affiliates in the medium-sized category and comparison to Texas affiliates. These measurements look at the addresses served (i.e. although multiple critical repairs or renovations may be completed on the same home over a period of time, this outcome measurement allows the address to be counted only once by Habitat International.) HFHSC also measures the total number of critical repairs and facilitates additional repairs, if needed, based upon grant and funding support and tracks the total repairs and total number of individuals served.

The US has a total of 1,087 Habitat affiliates. Habitat for Humanity Smith County is classified as a medium-sized affiliate based upon our service area population of 100,000 – 249,999. Of the 1,087 US affiliates, 271 (24.93%) are classified as medium-size. Texas has 72 Habitat affiliates of all sizes, with 16 (22.22%) ranked as medium-sized. On average, the number of critical repairs completed nationwide by US Habitat affiliates is 7.5 annually, medium-sized affiliates in Texas average 19.1 critical repairs annually, while HFHSC completed 82 critical repair projects utilizing the Habitat International outcome measurement using “one address.”

An additional outcome analyzed by HFHSC tracked more than 165 independent projects last year that impacted the lives of more than 250 people served in Smith County. [Data provided by Raimund Gideon, HFHSC and Jim Wooldridge, consultant.] HFHSC has a high completion ratio and ranks in the top 4% of all Texas affiliates, regardless of size, providing critical repairs, and from a nationwide perspective, HSHSC is in the top 2% of affiliates providing critical repairs. Local impact in our community is the internal outcome shared in this grant request.

Outcome 3 of Client Satisfaction impact: the measuring tool is given to each homeowner upon completion of the project and provides for a wide range of questions including demographic, staff resolution, overall experience versus expectations and rate of satisfaction.