GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Habitat for Humanity of Kent County is celebrating 40 years of being in the community. The nonprofit is set to build its 500th home this year.
Around 5,000 volunteers help make home ownership possible for so many each year.
In Kent County, as Habitat for Humanity hits 500 homes built, they're looking at what the future holds.
"We all need to have a place that we can call home, and so part of homeownership, we believe is hope and opportunity," said Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Bev Thiel.
Nail-by-nail and support-by-support, almost 500 news home owners are now permanent neighbors.
"We believe full heartedly that what we provide is community, so the family that will move here will have brand new neighbors. They will be part of a neighborhood. They’ll be doing cookouts, they’ll be doing block parties. It’ll just be an opportunity for them to be building community in a new home," said Thiel.
For the kids, they're given stability, educational opportunities and even friends.
While the family get a new home, they also gain knowledge in what it takes to own it. It's a strict application process, and you have to be approved.
"We step-by-step from the moment they apply for homeownership, we walk them through financial education. You see some workers out here are homeowners, do some equity on the home, so they partner with us, they help build their home," said Thiel.
Habitat for Humanity of Kent County is celebrating 40 years in the community.
— Lauren Kummer (@LaurenKummerTV) March 22, 2023
This year, they say they’ll build their 500th home in the same neighborhood they built their first. @FOX17 pic.twitter.com/4B5g2WiDdD
The homes built and the ones still being built would not have been possible without the future homeowners and volunteers help.
"Being someone that didn't have a home here at some point, also, I'm just happy to help a family that doesn't have this opportunity to have a home and eventually do, so this just means a lot," said Isabela Braga, a volunteer with Wolverine Building Group.
Braga is volunteering for her third time, coming in with some construction knowledge but not much.
"They're very helpful. They let you be comfortable whatever you're going to do. They don't push things out of your comfort zone, but just a little bit," said Braga.
Building community. That is the motto of Habitat for Humanity of Kent County, and that's what they're planning to continue to do.
"We have all of Kent County so we're beginning to say how can we be impactful across the county, but really focusing our neighborhood engagement, our neighborhood revitalization program," said Thiel.
To put the need here in Kent County into perspective, Habitat for Humanity said they had 230 applicants in the last application round.
In total each year with new builds and rehabbed homes, they finish about 25.
That 500th home they'll build is set to be completed by October of this year.
If you'd like to volunteer or are interested in the home ownership program, you can click here.