Repairing Homes,
Restoring Hope

Capital Campaign for Central Valley Habitat for Humanity 2024-25

Charmeigne’s Story

Insert Charmeigne Info

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Challenges to Home Ownership

  • Rising interest rates & construction costs

  • Housing is the biggest single expense for most low-income families.

  • The Harrisonburg sales market is a very strong one with limited inventory on the market and a median days on market of two weeks.

  • Demand for off-campus rental units to accommodate college students exerts upward pressure on rental rates, pricing out non-student households.

Three people standing outside in front of a brick house wearing face masks. The person on the left is a young man with dark hair in plaid shirt. The person in the middle is a young woman with dark hair in a red shirt. The person on the right is an older woman with brown hair in a black and white patterned top.

Housing – An Urgent Community Priority

7,800+

The number of families below 80% of the Area Median Income in Harrisonburg & Rockingham County.

3,600+

The number of families who pay more than 30% of their income on housing costs.

As a result thousands of families experience economic stress as they attempt to pay rental prices.

*City of Harrisonburg Comprehensive Housing Assessment & Market Study 2020

Group of six women and two children standing in front of a house, wearing masks, holding documents, with a bookshelf on the side.

Harrisonburg’s unique rental market keeps low-income families chronically unstable

  • Harrisonburg rental market dominated by universities

  • Friendly city with many ethnic groups (Russian, Asian, Hispanic)

  • Shortage of affordable rental units keeps families in poverty

  • The lowest income group has the smallest housing inventory available and affordable to them.

Renting a typical 3 bedroom in Harrisonburg -
$1,400

Average Monthly Habitat Mortgage -
$350

Two young girls sitting on a porch next to a bookshelf, wearing masks, with books and toys around them.

The Habitat Solution

Home ownership improves quality of life

  • Moves family out of poverty

  • Builds equity + wealth

  • Provides healthy living environment

  • Provides stability for children

Partnership model overcomes threshold barriers

  • Families make an affordable down payment or receive down payment assistance

  • Families help build their house by contributing ‘sweat equity’

  • Habitat offers 0% interest mortgages

Two men shaking hands in front of a new house, wearing matching green t-shirts with a Habitat for Humanity logo, one holding a safety helmet.

The Importance of Volunteering

Two women working on a woodworking project outdoors. One woman in a red hoodie is hammering nails, and the other woman in a blue hoodie and striped pants is hammering nails into wood. They are focused on their tasks, surrounded by grass and construction materials.

“…when people ask me about the best way to get involved, I tell them just come on out and help on the project. Habitat is a way to give a ‘hand-up’ - my parents got involved 30-some years ago, so as I grew up I was involved as a volunteer, and as I became an adult I continued to volunteer with my time and my pocketbook.”

-Ken Reeves

Impacts & Outcomes

On Families

  • Zero-interest loans for hard-working low-wealth families result in more home equity, lifting neighbors out of poverty

  • Habitat’s reinvestment of mortgage payments from these families helps fund new affordable homes going forward

  • Families learn to work on their home and become more self-reliant by taking classes offered by Central Valley Habitat for Humanity.

On The Community

  • Reduced number of families reliant on public assistance

  • Greater likelihood of children becoming educated to “break the cycle” of poverty

  • Growth of the Harrisonburg middle class

  • Habitat families contribute at least $134,000 in real estate taxes to the city and county every year

Group of people planting a tree in a backyard garden, holding shovels, smiling, with houses and trees in the background.

The Habitat Solution;
Suter Street

A New Model

A row of modern residential townhouses with cars parked in front and trees with autumn-colored leaves on a sunny day.

Vision for Suter Street -
The Habitat Neighborhood

  • Traditional model is one home at a time on an affordable vacant lot

  • Suter Street is a new vision to develop neighborhoods

    • Transform pockets of poverty into mixed-income communities

    • Partnered with PDY LLC

    • Habitat and the developer each build 11 homes (22 total)

    • Share costs of site work and utilities for the new neighborhood

  • Rapid housing expansion “exponentially” solves Harrisonburg’s low-income housing problem and alleviates rental market

Aerial view of a residential neighborhood with houses, cars, green lawns, and colorful trees in autumn.

Suter Street Details

  • North Harrisonburg, off  Jefferson Street

  • Habitat has 11 lots, PDY LLC has 11 lots

  • Sharing infrastructure costs with PDY LLC.

  • Once infrastructure is finished, Habitat is funding the building of their units

  • Will provide 11 homes for families in need.

Project Timeline

  • Summer 2023: Site work & infrastructure

  • Winter 2023 – Spring 2024:  Build 6 homes

  • Summer - Fall 2024: Build 5 homes

A suburban neighborhood with single-family homes, colorful trees in autumn, cars parked in driveways, a person riding a bicycle, and another sitting on the grass under a tree, on a sunny day.

Hear It From A Donor

Three children playing outdoors on a grassy yard near a blue house, with trees and a parked car in the background.

Campaign Budget

  • Infrastructure Costs $540,000

  • Materials: $550,000

  • Labor: $495,000

  • Construction Management: $110,000

    Total Needed: $1.5 Million

We need your help

A row of shovels with wooden handles and metal blades planted in the ground.