Mission

Our mission is to build decent, affordable homes and provide home ownership opportunities to qualified families who live and work in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties.

The Big Idea

Habitat for Humanity Monterey Bay brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope. Monterey County recently ranked 4th in the nation as the least affordable rental market by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. An extremely unaffordable place to live, renters often spend 50% or more of income on housing. With Habitat’s model, families own their homes and never spend more than 30% of income on housing costs, thereby stabilizing their resources, and providing a strong base to build from.

We have built 65 homes over the past 34 years, mostly in Santa Cruz County and some in Monterey County. To greatly increase our impact in Monterey over the next few years, we aim to develop or acquire land, add staff and resources to increase capacity and capability to develop multi-home projects as we have done in Santa Cruz, bringing stability, strength, and self-reliance to more Monterey County families.

I never thought I could own a house in California as a teacher … It’s like a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders. Our Habitat house is the only reason I was able to keep my job.

- Amber Julien