Northwest Michigan Habitat For Humanity

Northwest Michigan Habitat for Humanity partners with families in need of safe, decent, affordable homes. We provide our families with a hand up, not a hand out. Partner Families must first meet 3 initial criteria:

1. They must have a need. This can range from many issues such as overcrowding, structural issues, mold issues, paying too much for current living conditions, etc.
2. They must have the ability to pay for a 15-30 year 0% interest mortgage, which includes taxes and insurance. Partner Families are also required to put forth money for a down payment. All payments paid on the mortgage go into what we call the Fund for Humanity…which put the money directly back into the counties it came from to help build more homes for families in need.
3. They must be willing to partner with Habitat. We require each adult in the home to put in 250 “sweat equity” hours on their home. As a lot of our partner families are first time homebuyers, we want to prepare them with knowledge and skills to help them once they are moved in and if they are faced with a situation requiring them to fix some siding that blew off, or some shingles that came loose. 

Northwest Michigan Habitat for Humanity seeks to put God's love into action and bring people together to build homes, communities, and hope. Together with you, we share a vision of a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live, and where housing poverty and homelessness are eliminated.

We partnered with our first partner family in Boyne City in 1994 and by 2000, we had completed 5 homes. As we have grown into the community, we have grown our volunteer base, community base and partner family base. At the end of 2013, we are happy to say that we have built homes for 31 partner families in Charlevoix and Emmet Counties.