Who We Are

We change lives by offering a hand-up...not a hand out!

Habitat for Humanity is a
self-help housing solution
that builds

Health and Hope
Relationships and Respect
Confidence and Community
Mission Principles​
  • Demonstrate the Love of Jesus Christ
  • Focus on Shelter
  • Advocate for Affordable Housing
  • Promote Dignity and Hope
  • Support Sustainable and Transformational Development
 What is Habitat for Humanity?
Lorain County Habitat for Humanity builds simple, decent and affordable shelter by serving as the general contractor, financier, and mortgage company for all projects. Habitat is able to provide this housing opportunity through the assistance of the local community both through volunteerism and financial donations.

Habitat’s funding dollars have always come from local organizations, faith partners, corporations, individuals, grants and foundations. Lorain County Habitat for Humanity is not funded through the government or United Way. Habitat homeowners pay for their homes with a zero interest mortgage.

Our program is a hand up not​ a hand out!

Our Foundation​

Habitat for Humanity was founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a simple, decent, and affordable place to live in dignity and safety. Quality housing should be a matter of conscience and action for all.

Lorain County Habitat for Humanity was established in April 1988, through the efforts of four local churches located in Oberlin, Amherst, Elyria, and Vermilion, Lorain County Habitat for Humanity has constructed 45 homes in five different communities in the last 28 years.

Habitat for Humanity International

Lorain County Habitat for Humanity is part of a global, nonprofit housing organization operated on Christian principles that is dedicated to eliminating substandard housing through construction, rehabilitation and preservation of 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 International was founded in Americus, Georgia, in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller. Today, Habitat for Humanity operates around the globe in more than 70 countries and has helped build, renovate, and repair more than 800,000 decent, affordable houses sheltering more than 4 million people worldwide.

Our Families 

  • “You just can’t explain Habitat’s growth and success apart from God’s blessings. Over and over we have seen what former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice likes to describe as the impossible becoming inevitable. Amazing things happen because countless supporters around the world pray faithfully and diligently for this ministry. We are privileged to come before God in prayer as we move closer to a world where everyone has a decent place to live.”

    — Jonathan T.M. Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International

  • “The theology of the hammer embraces wholeheartedly the idea that the love of God and love of man must be blended. The word and the deed must come together. One without the other is devoid of meaning … As the deed gets closer to the word, God gets closer to us. The results are always wonderful — and sometimes spectacular!”

    — Millard Fuller, founder Habitat for Humanity International

  • “Churches are the primary partners that work with Habitat in an almost infinite variety of creative overlapping circles. We cherish these partnerships with churches…I have always seen Habitat for Humanity as a servant of the church and as a vehicle through which the church and its people can express their love, faith, and servanthood to people in need in a very tangible and concrete (literally!) way.”

    — Millard Fuller

  • “What Habitat does is much more than just sheltering people. It’s what it does for people on the inside. It’s that intangible quality of hope. Many people without decent housing consider themselves life’s losers. This is the first victory they may have ever had. And it changes them. We see Habitat homeowners go back to school and get their GEDs, enter college, do all kinds of things they never believed they could do before they moved into their house. By their own initiative, through their own pride and hope, they change.”

    — Millard Fuller

  • ‘I will shed my spirit on all mankind.’ (Acts 2:17) A spirit of partnership. The rich man will sit down at the same table with a poor man … Neither will shiver in a drafty house, nor have to move his furniture when it rains. Both will rejoice in the robust health of their children, who are not listless from having too little nor bored from having too much. They will discover the blessedness of sharing, the warmth of compassion, the quiet strength of humility, and the glow of gentleness, the cleanness of honesty, the peace of justice, the ecstasy of love.”

    — Clarence Jordan