Habitat For Humanity West Hawaii is a locally run affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization. Habitat for Humanity works in partnership with people in need to build and renovate safe, decent, affordable housing. The houses then are sold to those in need at no profit and with no interest charged.

Mission

To empower families, build community and hope through home ownership for low income partner families.

Vision

All the residents of West Hawaii will have safe, decent and affordable housing

History

Habitat for Humanity West Hawaii was granted affiliation with Habitat for Humanity International in 2002. Our main program is and has always been our home building program. Since our founding in 2002, we have completed nine new homes and one major home rehab as well as several home repairs for seniors. We have also helped renovate a women's shelter in town, as well as helped with several homes damaged by the earthquake of October 15, 2006. In June of 2007, we successfully completed a "Blitz Build," or the building of an entire home in just 10 days. Each year, our affiliate grows and strives to increase it's building capacity. Habitat for Humanity affiliates go through five builder development stages. Our young affiliate has already developed into stage two. Our ultimate goal is to grow from being a stage two "Home Builder" affiliate (builds 3-4 homes/year) to a stage five "Community Builder" (builds 21+ homes a year) affiliate. To satisfy these aggressive building goals, we have completed 3 homes in 2010. We are looking to complete 4-6 more houses in 2011.

In addition to our home building efforts, another major component of our organization is our ReStore, which opened in September 2007 and sells new and gently used building materials at prices 50-90% off retail values. Inventory is generated through donated materials from local developers, contractors, businesses and individuals. The ReStore has been a great success as it offers the community a place to buy quality items at deeply discounted prices and keeps reusable items out of our island's landfills. It is open "TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC" and proceeds support our affordable home building efforts in West Hawaii.