Prices will differ slightly depending on location and costs of land, labor and materials. Habitat houses are affordable for low-income families because there is no profit included in the sale price, and no interest charged on the mortgage. The average length of a Habitat mortgage in the United States is 20 years. Partner families are selected by appying to local Habitat affiliates. A Family Selection Committee chooses homeowners based on their level of need, their willingness to become partners in the program, and their ability to repay the loan.
Every affiliate follows a nondiscriminatory policy of family selection.
Neither race nor religion is a factor in choosing the families that recieve Habitat houses. There are now over 1,000 active affiliates located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. There are also more than 100 building projects coordinated by international affiliates in over 40 nations around the world. According to the infromation provided by the 1990 Federal Census, there are over 2,700 families in Lawrence and Douglas County living at or below the poverty level. If that information and the standards applied to it were more current it is reasonable to believe that the number of such families has increased.