Having a safe place to call home has always been at the core of our mission here at Habitat for Humanity of Orange County (Habitat OC), but at a time were we are all ordered to stay home to ensure the health and safety of ourselves, our families, and our community, the concept of “home” has become more important.
Co-founded by Millard and Linda Fuller in 1976, Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) has helped more than 29 million people afford a safe and decent home in more than 70 countries around the world. The impact of owning a home is truly astounding: Habitat families are able to save money to eventually buy a home on the open market. Children growing up in Habitat homes are often able to buy a home as adults instead of renting, helping us get one step closer toward ending generational poverty.
Azucena Mayorga’s family qualified for a Habitat OC home when she was a teenager. She said owning a home was a defining moment in her family’s life.
“We finally had a place to call our own,” Mayorga said. “New hopes, new beginnings, which was the most important thing.”
The past few weeks have been challenging for us all. We closed our office to the public and modified our Habitat OC ReStore hours. Our corporate and volunteer build days have come to a halt. As a nonprofit that relies heavily on donations and Habitat OC ReStore revenue to fund our development projects, and relies on volunteers to build those homes, we’ve had to re-imagine what the future of our organization would look like.
Regardless of the circumstances, we continue to work hard to be able to provide a “hand-up” for local Orange County families in need.
Our construction staff and contractors continue to build upon the dreams of homeownership in our ongoing Fullerton development. Our office staff continue to work hard to help give families the opportunity to own a safe and decent place to live, especially amidst the virus outbreak. Working amidst the global pandemic means looking for creative solutions to help out our communities in whatever way we can while practicing social distancing.
We re-imagined our Building Dreams Fundraising Breakfast, one of our biggest and most successful annual fundraising events, into an all-day online giving drive on Wednesday, March 25th. Filling in the hours with video testaments from volunteers and donors, livestreams and special giveaways from sponsors like In-N-Out and Massage Matters, we hoped to engage and encourage our followers to support us in any way they can.
Our Building Dreams Drive proved a success, surpassing our 300k goal.
With the ongoing pandemic, unity and home is more important than ever. In keeping our distance from each other, we must unite in whatever ways we can, whether that be electronically or united in prayer. Because at Habitat OC, we not only build homes, we build community, hope, and dreams.
The Build for Unity Coalition has contributed more than $253,000 to help Habitat OC families have a safe place to call home. We strive to continue to make homeownership a reality for so many more families and it is with your help that we have been able to do so. For so many families in Orange County, hope starts here.