{"id":355665,"date":"2026-06-30T12:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/355665\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T12:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:32:15","slug":"50-years-in-habitat-for-humanity-builds-1500th-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/355665\/","title":{"rendered":"50 years in, Habitat for Humanity builds 1,500th home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monica Ovalle\u2019s two daughters dashed out the front door of their new Eastside home, examined the front stoop and headed to their backyard after seeing their bedrooms.<\/p>\n

Up until that morning, though, they hadn\u2019t been aware they were moving out of their small, two-bedroom apartment. <\/p>\n

Ovalle had spent months working through Habitat for Humanity\u2019s homebuying program, building a house with volunteers and workers from the nonprofit.<\/p>\n

At a home dedication on June 12, she showed her daughters the product of that work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids didn\u2019t know anything about it,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t have to worry about where my kids are going to sleep in the next couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first thing Ovalle says she wants to do is hang a photo of her family in the living room. The she plans to plant a garden with her daughters.<\/p>\n

\"\"Habitat For Humanity Homebuyer Monica Ovalle works with other volunteers to finish landscaping around her new subdivision before revealing the new home to her two daughters at a dedication ceremony on June 12, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Ovalle is the first in her own family to own a home \u2014 none of her five other siblings have bought one. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s one of more than 1,500 families that have been able to get an affordable home by working with Habitat for Humanity<\/a> of San Antonio and the Guadalupe Valley. The San Antonio affiliate was the very first homebuilder for the international nonprofit and this year marks 50 years of serving families.<\/p>\n

Chief Development Officer Stephanie Wiese has seen the nonprofit grow from a group of volunteers to an organization with multiple locations and dozens of full-time staff in her 30 years with Habitat for Humanity. <\/p>\n

She said the mission has always been the same: creating stable housing for families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An international nonprofit tied to San Antonio <\/p>\n

While many across the world know of Habitat for Humanity through its thousands of affiliates, San Antonio is home to the global nonprofit\u2019s first home.<\/p>\n

\"\"Volunteers Louis Carranza and Frank Falco work along the sidewalks of the Habitat for Humanity\u2019s new subdivision on June 12, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

In 1976, the same year that missionary Millard Fuller founded the larger umbrella organization in Georgia, Faith Lytle, a local minister\u2019s wife, gathered community members and started building a home in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Lytle saw a foundational need for stable housing among local residents, Wiese said, and wrote Fuller about starting a Habitat for Humanity affiliate in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Wiese said the early version of Habitat for Humanity was almost entirely volunteer based, building a few homes every year in vacant lots with support from a variety of community members, local churches and businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a village to get people housed,\u201d Wiese said.<\/p>\n

Now, San Antonio is one of the largest Habitat for Humanity home builders<\/a> in the country. It partners with local officials to build neighborhoods and create affordable housing opportunities, including working with the City of San Antonio\u2019s affordable housing bond<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHabitat for Humanity is a critical partner in the city\u2019s efforts to expand affordable homeownership opportunities across San Antonio,\u201d said Veronica Garcia, director of the city\u2019s neighborhood and housing services. \u201cHabitat helps families achieve long-term stability while strengthening our neighborhoods and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Volunteers dig holes to plant trees in the front and backyards of the newly-completed homes at Habitat for Humanity\u2019s affordable subdivision on the city\u2019s East Side. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Years of scaling up<\/p>\n

In its early days, Wiese said, volunteers often worked on homes one at a time. Each home was unique \u2014 infill development in vacant lots built with donations and caring.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, we were building one, two, three homes a year,\u201d Wiese said.<\/p>\n

Habitat for Humanity purchased its current headquarters on Probandt Street in 1993, where it has office space, a warehouse and a retail thrift store. Those stores sell new and used building materials and home decor and its profits fund Habitat\u2019s administrative costs.<\/p>\n

CEO and President Michael Taylor says the process has evolved into one that produces 50 to 60 homes annually. Each year 4,000 families apply for a home.<\/p>\n

Taylor said they start acquiring land about three years before building starts. Sometimes they buy the land, other times it is donated. It can take a year to build out the streets, sidewalks and other infrastructure that are needed for a neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re building 20 homes at a time, it makes sense to have them all at one location,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Habitat for Humanity\u2019s warehouse stores building supplies for around 20 homes, Taylor added. The nonprofit builds from four basic blueprints: a three-bedroom and four-bedroom layout and the mirror image of both those designs. <\/p>\n

\"\"Habitat for Humanity volunteer Neil Bys works at his station, cutting wood that other volunteers will use to put together wall frames for homes being built at the Habitat Home Center warehouse on Thursday. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to buy in large quantities when prices are low,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

That allows Habitat for Humanity to quickly scale up construction, gives the volunteers a reoccurring blueprint to work on and guards against price fluctuations that can hit the building industry.<\/p>\n

For its 50th anniversary, Taylor and Wiese are leading a unique effort. The nonprofit is putting its speed to the test, seeking out 1,800 volunteers to build a home in just 50 hours this July.<\/p>\n

Families and volunteers put in the work<\/p>\n

Part of Habitat for Humanity\u2019s program requires that new homeowners put in 300 hours of \u201csweat equity.\u201d For Ovalle, that was its own pleasure. She learned a lot about construction, she said, and got to know the volunteers and Habitat for Humanity workers that worked on her new home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe families are very appreciative of their house. It\u2019s very fun to work with them,\u201d said Al Poerner, who has volunteered at Habitat for Humanity for 25 years. \u201cI always tell them, \u2018I\u2019d like to build it as if it\u2019s my house.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Habitat for Humanity weekday volunteer crew works on frames for homes at the Habitat Home Center warehouse on Thursday. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Poerner started out volunteering on the side while serving in the U.S. Air Force. He wanted to learn how to build his own home. He soon saw the impact his volunteering had on new homeowners. He remembers seeing the excited faces of local children who would get their own bedroom for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I hadn\u2019t been sold, I was sold then,\u201d Poerner said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a home is being built, families spend six to nine months learning how to pay for and take care of a home. That includes basic maintenance, like replacing roof shingles, repairing walls and understanding how electric and plumbing systems work.<\/p>\n

\"\"A completed home at Habitat for Humanity\u2019s affordable subdivision on the city\u2019s East Side. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Building the home costs between $220,000 and $240,000, Taylor said, including infrastructure and land acquisition. The house costs around $145,000, and that\u2019s what Habitat for Humanity asks prospective homeowners to pay through zero-interest loans. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s much lower than Bexar County\u2019s median home price, which was $289,000 in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sponsorships are what allow us to sell a home for way below market value and finance those 0% loans,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Impact for years to come<\/p>\n

Ultimately, success is still up to the families, Wiese said. They have to help build the home. They have to pay their mortgage. Habitat for Humanity helps, but won\u2019t do it all. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a process that works for everyone.<\/p>\n

Each family is different, Wiese said. People can still run into issues in everyday life. Owning a home helps a lot, but it doesn\u2019t completely eliminate job loss, mental health challenges, family disputes and other issues that can hit folks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives them an opportunity they didn\u2019t have before,\u201d Wiese said. \u201cIt\u2019s in their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regina Martinez saw that firsthand. She found out about Habitat for Humanity\u2019s homeownership opportunities after she started working in the nonprofit\u2019s retail thrift store as a cashier. She\u2019s worked there for 17 years and is now a program assistant.<\/p>\n

At first, she said, she didn\u2019t qualify for a home because her credit wasn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

\"\"Habitat for Humanity homeowner Regina Martinez took a job as a cashier at the home center 17 years ago. Martinez continues to work at Habitat for Humanity and still resides in her Habitat home with her family. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cI abused credit cards at a very young age,\u201d she said. \u201cIt took me two years to get that cleared up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Habitat for Humanity kept the door open, she said, and referred her to financial advisors who put her on the right path. <\/p>\n

In 2013, she and her husband moved into their first home with their 2-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

Her family had never owned a home, she said, but the stability it\u2019s created for her children has made a difference. They don\u2019t have to move between apartments or sink money into rent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when we first moved in and first laid down. You feel like it\u2019s a hotel,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cIt\u2019s so unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to provide for our kids in a way we did not have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monica Ovalle\u2019s two daughters dashed out the front door of their new Eastside home, examined the front stoop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96074,11532,1494,17658,14918,4562,3222,12704,126527,82,84,83,92,93,16057],"class_list":["post-355665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-2022-affordable-housing-bond","tag-city-of-san-antonio","tag-construction","tag-habitat-for-humanity","tag-home-buying","tag-homeowners","tag-housing","tag-housing-affordability","tag-michael-taylor","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-top-story","tag-typefeature","tag-wc-1500-2000"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}