Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

As prices rise in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Habitat for Humanity is building housing in the suburbs, where land is cheaper.

BY KEVIN GILES
Minneapolis Star Tribune

June 24, 2006

At the door to the new home they'll move into today in Woodbury, Jennifer Kenny-Hendry's three young children break into a chant as they count -- and celebrate -- the shiny metal address numbers.

"Six-five-four!" they recite excitedly. "Six-five-four!"

Their two-story townhouse, built on the outskirts of the fast-growing Washington County suburb, represents a new generation of housing for Habitat for Humanity in the Twin Cities: a shift away from single-family city lots in Minneapolis and St. Paul and toward multi-unit homes in the suburbs. 

Driving the changes: dramatic increases in the prices that Habitat for Humanity pays for lots and a desire to help as many families as possible get into homes of their own. More than half of the 60 homes the group plans to build this year will be in Twin Cities suburbs. 

"As land prices increase, we have to put more houses on limited land," said Susan Haigh, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Twin Cities, explaining the shift to Woodbury, North St. Paul, Hastings, Columbia Heights and other suburbs. 

"We're competing with for-profit developers," Haigh said. 

Once, tax-forfeited lots that sold for a single dollar to the organization were available by the hundreds in city neighborhoods. They became a staple of the metro area's Habitat for Humanity program, which builds houses for low-income families who do some of the work themselves to buy the homes at a price they can afford. 

But the supply of these lots has diminished. Now, building sites anywhere in the metro area cost the well-known philanthropy an average of $43,000 -- a trend that's helped drive the average cost of an "affordable" Habitat home in the past 10 years to $181,000. 

The Twin Cities Habitat affiliate is one of the first nationally to make to shift toward multi-unit homes on more affordable property in the suburbs, according to Haigh. 

Woodbury is a Habitat-home hot spot. The organization will build 14 homes there this year; 26 more are planned over the next few years. 

"We've had an astonishing relationship with Woodbury," Haigh said. "They recognized that for their city to grow and prosper they've got to provide a range of housing opportunities." 

Kenny-Hendry appreciates Habitat's move. She's already met some of her neighbors in the three connecting townhouses in the Garden Gate development on Cottage Grove Road. 

Tonight, she and her children will sleep in their new home for the first time. They've been living in the basement of her father's house in White Bear Lake, where a sheet hanging from the ceiling separated mother from kids. 

"Elation," Kenny-Hendry, 33, said of owning a home in the suburbs. "It's the best feeling ever." 

Kenny-Hendry, who is divorced, works for an insurance firm in St. Paul. Soon she's going to college to study accounting to improve her earning power. 

She earned equity in her home by investing 200 hours of labor on finish work herself and recruiting family members to help with another 100. She also worked on her neighbor's home. That has reduced the cost of her home to about $126,000 on a no-interest mortgage. 

Trevor, 7, will get his own bedroom, and his 4-year-old twin sisters, Paige and Faythe, will share a bigger one. One evening this week they raced around the empty rooms, shouting questions at their mother. When can we unpack our toys? Where will the furniture go?

"It's kind of liberating," she said. "I feel like the teenager finally moving out. Freedom and complete joy."

Haigh said Habitat for Humanity homeowners earn an average of $27,500 a year, about $50,000 less than the metro area's median income. 

Woodbury Mayor Bill Hargis said he welcomes the organization and the people it serves. The suburb needs affordable housing despite its reputation as a wealthy city full of expensive homes, he said. 

"You can create the perception that we're all higher-income, but that's not everybody who lives in Woodbury," he said of the more than 50,000 residents. "Diversity is important," he said. "You've got to have a place for everyone to live." 

Hargis said he likes the way that Habitat homes blend with larger, more expensive houses in neighborhoods throughout the city, rather than in housing projects that stand apart.

The Twin Cities Habitat affiliate is the nation's fourth-busiest in terms of homebuilding, behind only three in Florida.

Rising land prices have driven another shift at the organization. Although most metro-area Habitat housing is new, some homeowners such as Michelle Smith of St. Paul refurbish existing houses. On Thursday she was installing new carpeting in a house she will own on Garfield Avenue. "I never thought I would actually own my own home," said Smith, 34, the mother of two children. "Through Habitat I'm able to conquer that dream."

Haigh said that even as housing changes, Habitat for Humanity's mission and rewards remain the same. At a recent celebration, one of the new homeowners took her hand.

 "You've brought a miracle to my life," the woman told her.

Kevin Giles • 612-673-7707