Firelands Habitat for Humanity

Firelands Habitat serves Erie and Huron Counties in northern Ohio. We build 2-3 new houses each year for low to moderate income families. We offer zero percent financing on our houses and sell them at their appraised value.

In November of 2013 Firelands Habitat for Humanity moved our offices and ReStore to 7602 Milan Rd. in Sandusky. This building is at the corner of State Route 250 and Fox Rd. The 15,500 SQ.FT. building is conveniently located between Sandusky and Norwalk and is fully handicapped accessible.

Our Vision

A world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Our Mission Statement

Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.

About Firelands Habitat for Humanity

Firelands Habitat for Humanity is part of a global, nonprofit housing organization operated on Christian principles that seeks to put God’s love into action by building homes, communities and hope. Firelands Habitat for Humanity is dedicated to eliminating substandard housing locally and worldwide through constructing, rehabilitating and preserving homes; by advocating for fair and just housing policies; and by providing training and access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions. Habitat for Humanity was founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a simple, durable place to live in dignity and safety, and that decent shelter in decent communities should be a matter of conscience and action for all.

All are welcome

Firelands Habitat for Humanity has an open-door policy: All who believe that everyone needs a decent, affordable place to live are welcome to help with the work, regardless of race, religion, age, gender, political views or any of the other distinctions that too often divide people. In short, Firelands Habitat welcomes volunteers and supporters from all backgrounds and also serves people in need of decent housing regardless of race or religion. As a matter of policy, Habitat for Humanity International and its affiliated organizations do not proselytize. This means that Habitat will not offer assistance on the expressed or implied condition that people must either adhere to or convert to a particular faith, or listen and respond to messaging designed to induce conversion to a particular faith.

About Habitat for Humanity International

Founded in Americus, Georgia, USA, in 1976, Habitat for Humanity today operates around the globe and has helped build, renovate and repair more than 600,000 decent, affordable houses sheltering more than 3 million people worldwide.

Habitat’s Mission

  • Seeking to put God’s love into action Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.
  • We are a grassroots Christian nonprofit organization dedicated to the elimination of poverty and substandard housing worldwide.
  • We believe that every person deserves, at least, a simple and decent place in which to live and grow into all that God intends for them to be
  • We build or renovate houses in partnership with families who qualify for home-ownership based on three criteria: need, a willingness to partner with HFH and an ability to repay a no-interest mortgage
  • We work with people of all faiths and people of no faith
  • We sell our houses at no profit, with no interest charged
  • Habitat for Humanity International has built and renovated over 1,00,000 houses worldwide since 1976

History

Firelands Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1990. We serve Erie and Huron Counties in northern Ohio. In 2019 we completed our 102nd Habitat House and have 2 more under construction.

Founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness worldwide and to making adequate, affordable shelter a matter of conscience and action. Habitat invites people from all faiths and walks of life to work together in partnership, building houses in partnership with families in need.

How We Do it

Through volunteer labor and tax-deductible donations of money and materials, Habitat builds and rehabilitates simple, decent houses with the help of the homeowner (partner) families. Habitat houses are sold to partner families at no profit, financed with affordable, no-interest loans. The homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments are recycled into a revolving Fund for Humanity that is used to build more houses.

Family Selection

Whether in the U.S. or overseas, families in need apply to local Habitat affiliates. The affiliate’s family selection committee considers applicants’ level of need, their willingness to become partners in the Habitat program and their ability to repay the no-interest loan. Every affiliate follows a nondiscriminatory policy of family selection. Neither race nor religion is a factor in choosing Habitat homeowner families.

If your family, or a family you know, is in need of decent, affordable housing, please check our Apply for a Home page where you will find information on the availability, size, costs, and sweat equity requirements for Habitat houses in our area.

Habitat and its Affiliates

Habitat is a worldwide, grass-roots movement. There are more than 2,100 active affiliates in 80 countries, including all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. Use the Habitat for Humanity International affiliate search to find Habitat affiliates in other areas.

Habitat is a grass-roots movement. Concerned citizens from all walks of life come together as volunteers to form a Habitat affiliate in their community. Fundraising, house construction, family selection and other key decisions are carried out by the local affiliates. HFHI headquarters, located in Americus, Ga., provides information, training, support and other services to Habitat affiliates worldwide.

Donations

Donations are used as designated by the donor. Gifts received by us that are designated to a specific building project are forwarded to that project. Any undesignated gifts are used where most needed. Our most recent audited financial statement is available upon request.

Management

Our board of directors determines policy and monitors operations in conjunction with a board of advisers. Board members are dedicated volunteers who are deeply concerned about the problems of poverty housing in our community. We operate with an administrative staff, assisted by a core group of clerical and support employees and supplemented by long-term and short-term volunteers.

Government Support

Habitat does not receive government funds for our operating costs. When available, we apply for grants to help cover the cost of construction of new houses or for the renovation or repair of existing houses. Occasionally, we accept government funds for “stage-setting” infrastructure needs (streets, sewers, etc.) , or for the acquisition of land, so long as the funds have no strings attached that would violate Habitat’s principles.