Program areas at Habitat for Humanity - Fredrick County MD HFH of
Habitat restore: thousands of tons of useable building materials, household goods and furniture are donated to the Habitat for Humanity restore of Frederick County, MD. Not only do these donations keep these materials out of local landfills but the restore is also able to recycle and sell these donations back to the community. Proceeds from these sales support the operating expenses of the organization so that more homes can be built, renovated and repaired for local citizens who are in need of the strength, stability and self-reliance that comes from affordable home ownership.
Habitat for Humanity's neighborhood revitalization program seeks to serve the community by providing safe and affordable housing to the local area. This is based on a framework that focuses on first understanding the concerns of community and Habitat stakeholders, and then empowering these groups to lead the projects they want to accomplish. In addition to involving homeowners, volunteers and Habitat staff members through a variety of communication channels, this also involves partnerships with community nonprofits, faith-based institutions, schools, new and longstanding neighborhood coalitions, local, County, state and federal government, as well as additional community leaders, to achieve their goals. In order for qualified individuals in the community to know about the services offered through Habitat for Humanity of Frederick County, MD and associated community partnerships, these communication channels include attendance at local events, print and verbal advertising, community-type forums, social media sharing and monitoring, legislative advocacy, etc. Once a client or project has been identified as requiring support, Habitat relies heavily on volunteers to physically perform the work needed to build or repair the homes or complete the assigned projects. Therefore, it is necessary to recruit, screen and train local volunteers. Together, this neighborhood revitalization program works simultaneously with the other necessary parts of the organization to accomplish its vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.
Habitat for Humanity of Frederick County MD's home repair program: builds on the organization's traditional partnership model using grant and donor funds combined with volunteer labor to serve low-to moderate-income Frederick County homeowners with home repairs and modifications. This program focuses on improving quality of life, maintaining financial stability, and keeping homes safe. Each project uniquely addresses the needs of the individual homeowner(s). Services can range from minor repairs to the installation of grab bars, accessibility ramps, plumbing repairs and other safety measures, all designed to improve the quality of life in those homes, and for senior clients, to allow them more opportunities to safely age-in-place. In fy24, 56 local homeowners received services this program to solve or improve significant challenges they were facing.
Habitat for Humanity of Frederick County's award-winning land trust program, the first of its kind in Maryland, allows low- to mid-income applicants the opportunity to purchase a home while the organization retains ownership of the land. This model reduces the purchase price to the buyer and, through resale clauses, ensures the housing units will be kept in affordability in perpetuity. Recent operations of this program focused on infrastructure growth in preparation for a large-scale project in the city of Frederick, Maryland. The Frederick County affordable housing land trust (fcahlt) acquired a large grant from the Maryland department of housing & community development to purchase three blighted properties. The fcahlt is in the process of rehabilitating, renovating and building on the properties in order to make 12 units of affordable housing available to local families. Substantial work began on this project in fiscal year 2022.