Habitat for Humanity in Whatcom County

We Build Affordable Homes with Volunteer Labor and Donated Materials

99% volunteer labor

Habitat for Humanity in Whatcom County is operated by a Board of Directors and 8 committees that work with community corporations and individuals to provide affordable housing to Whatcom County's working poor. They all work on a volunteer basis in order to keep building costs low.

Office paid & volunteer staff

Our office administrative staff manage the day-to-day operations, including program and affiliate business oversight, bookkeeping and coordinating volunteer efforts. They raise funds, approach trades & business suppliers to arrange tax-deductible in-kind materials donations. They work with local churches, assist our various committees, and work closely with the Board in keeping with our Strategic Plan.

Executive Director, John Shorthill is full time paid staff, engaged in oversight, planning & administration.
Faith Stouder is 3/4 time paid staff working as Assistant to the Director.
Mike Hess is 3/4 time paid staff working as our Construction Supervisor.
Kendra McNabb is our Volunteer Coordinator whose primary duties are to recruit, train, recognize and deploy excellent volunteers to our job sites, events and more.
John T. Sproul, Resource Development Director, is paid staff funded in part by a grant, and is in charged with "making the ask" and developing means and strategies for increasing our capacity to build more homes.

Our office is generously donated by the congregation of the First Christian Church - Disciples of Christ in Bellingham. This, along with donations of nearly all office equipment and furniture, enable us to keep overhead minimal.

Mackenzie and her pal, Bear

How does Habitat work?
Habitat houses are purchased by the homeowner families and each pays a mortgage to the local Habitat affiliate, although no interest is charged. The assessed value of the home is usually set at roughly half the market value.

Building is financed by a revolving Fund for Humanity that comes from the new homeowners' house payments, donations and no-interest loans provided by supporters and money earned by fund-raising activities. The monies in the Fund for Humanity are used to build more houses.

Habitat is not a giveaway program. In addition to a down payment and the monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labor (sweat equity) into building their Habitat house and the houses of others.

One of Habitat’s important credos is: “A hand up, not a hand out.”

Three factors make the houses affordable to low-income people worldwide:

houses are sold at no profit, with no interest charged on the mortgage
homeowners and volunteers build the houses under trained supervision
individuals, local businesses, national corporations, local faith groups and others provide financial support