Meet a Habitat Partner Family: The Lintons

Lars and Emily Linton can't wait to pay their mortgage because it will be a brighter future for their young family. 

Bobby McGee Photography

Lars and Emily Linton graduated from UCSB and married in 2007. Today they are the proud parents of two beautiful daughters—Lydia, age 2½, and Lindy Grace, age 4 months. After receiving a PhD in sociology, Lars works full time as an assistant pastor. Until recently, Emily taught at Coastline Christian Academy in Goleta.

Even with their two combined incomes, Lars and Emily could not afford to buy a home in Santa Barbara. Instead, they rent a small two-bedroom apartment on the east side of Santa Barbara. The apartment has had a series of sewage and mold problems. Lars and Emily recently spent months sleeping on a mattress on the living room floor after the walls of their bedroom warped from sewage backing up from the street.

The Lintons heard about the Canon Perdido Affordable Homes through a friend’s email. The family attended the first of six information meetings for interested homeowners at the Eastside Library. Seeing the hundreds of other families in need of an affordable home, Lars and Emily were apprehensive about their chance of selection, but recognized it was an opportunity they shouldn’t pass up.

Learning they were selected to be homeowners was a bright light during a very dark period. Baby Lindy Grace was born at Cottage Hospital in July of 2012. Hours after her delivery, Lindy was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. At 11 days old, she had open heart surgery and spent a total of seven weeks in the UCLA Medical Center and at Cottage Hospital’s NICU. It was an emotional and scary time for the family, to say the least. Lindy will need additional heart surgeries in her future.

A new Habitat home will mean a safe, secure home where Lydia and Lindy can play and grow without the worry of mold or other problems in their residential environment.

Like all Habitat partner families, Lars and Emily will buy their home with a no-interest mortgage and monthly payments made to fit within 35% of their income. Early next year, they will begin contributing "sweat equity" hours on the construction of their new home.

This holiday season, the Lintons have new-found hope for their future!

Bishop Diego High School volunteers at the ReStore

On Saturday, November 10th Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County welcomed a hardworking group of students from Bishop Diego High School at the Habitat ReStore.

They were a joy to be with and a pleasure to work alongside. Here at Habitat we're thankful for their commitment to giving back to the community!

Interested in volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in Santa Barbara? Our next volunteer orientation will take place Saturday, December 8th at 10am. More details can be found here.

Meet a Habitat for Humanity Partner Family: The Villarreals

Over the course of the following year we will introduce a new partner family each month.

Habitat fr Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County is proud to partner with Rima Villarreal on the construction of her new home. Rima is a single mother of Shane, age 4, and Rubin, 4 months. Raised in Lompoc, Rima attended UC San Diego before moving to Santa Barbara in the spring of 2011. She works for the City of Santa Barbara at the Downtown Public Library.  

In November of 2011, as she was pregnant with her second son, Rima and Shane moved into an emergency housing shelter. They lived at this shelter until March of 2012 when they moved into a transitional home at St. Vincent's. Rima gave birth to Rubin in July and the three  currently share a communal cottage with four women and six other children.    

Rima and her family will move into one of the Canon Perdido Affordable Homes when they are completed in 2014. A new Habitat home will mean a safe and permanent home for the family, a place where Shane and Rubin can grow, thrive, and feel secure. 

Like all Habitat partner families, Rima will purchase her home with a no-interest mortgage and monthly payments made to fit within 35% of her annual income. Early next year she will begin contributing “sweat equity” hours on the construction of the new home.

 

Building Homes, Building Hope

Earlier this year we launched the Building Homes, Building Hope Campaign. The $4.3 million campaign was formed with the following goals:

* Build 12 low-income homes on Canon Perdido Street in Santa Baraba;

* Repair 5 homes through the A Brush with Kindness program;

* Engage over 1500 volunteers to support Habitat's mission;

* Provide education through the Homeowner Readiness Curriculum;

* Continue expansion of the ReStore in Goleta; 

* Purchase land in Carpinteria for our next home project;

* Fund projects in Haiti & Nicaragua by tithing 10% of unrestricted funds.

We have raised 46.1% of our goal to date and need your help to make our goals a reality.  

Will you consider supporting Habitat financially and help make a difference in the affordable housing inventory in our community? It is easy to donate online today.

All donations to Habitat for Humanity are tax deductible. You will receive a donation receipt for your records. 

  

Dedication ceremony for the San Pascaul Affordable Homes, completed in 2010.

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World Habitat Day 2012: What you can do

Today is World Habitat Day, a day dedicated by the United Nations to help raise awareness of the dire need for adequate shelter. We love the 2012 theme of "many homes, one community" which focuses not only on the individual family transformation but on the growth of strong neighborhoods and communities.  We understand that decent and affordable housing plays a huge roll in community stabilization and development.

Here at Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County we are proud to be part of Habitat for Humanity International which is working to create a world where everyone has a decent place to live.  We stand by our mission statement which reads: "Seeking to put God's love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope."

We urge you to get involved. Educate yourself on the housing situation around the world. 

• Read about the housing crisis in the Asia-Pacific region: "Housing not just a roof, it breaks poverty cycle"

"The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than four billion people and some of the world's most dynamic economies. Yet, not everyone has a decent place to call home. One in eight, or 500 million people, lives in a slum and that figure is expected to grow, United Nations statistics show" read more

• Learn about the work being done to offer microcredit support for basic water and sanitation services in Nicaragua: Nicaragua's Housing Solutions.

•  Sign the Pledge to End Poverty Housing. This virtual petition calls on key decision-makers to commit to recognizing the role of housing in communities, making affordable and adequate housing a priority, and changing the policies that lead to poverty housing.

Tell us how what you're doing this World Habitat Day?

More United Way Day of Caring Photos

Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County was thankful to host two groups of volunteers during United Way's Day of Caring on September 15th.  A group of volunteers from Westmont College joined us at the Habitat ReStore, while another group from Santa Barbara Bank and Trust helped with exterior home repairs at our A Brush with Kindness project in the Hidden Valley neighborhood of Santa Barbara.

Day of Caring volunteers from Westmont College.

Day of Caring volunteers from Santa Barbara Bank and Trust.

One completed wall of the A Brush with Kindness house.

United Way of Santa Barbara posted a number of photos from the day on their Facebook page. See if you can spot the photos of the volunteers out at the Habitat A Brush with Kindness site! 

And thank you to all of the volunteers who spend their day volunteering with Habitat for Humanity! We rely on volunteers to accomplish our mission of providing safe, decent, and affordable housing.

A Brush with Kindness: house painting

Last Saturday, September 15th, Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County welcomed a group of volunteers from United Way's Day of Caring and Santa Barbara Bank and Trust at the current A Brush with Kindness home repair project site. Over the course of the day the volunteers painted the exterior of the house. Despite a very warm day, the volunteers kept the energy high and completed the project!

A Brush with Kindness is a program to help preserve home-ownership by partnering with homeowners struggling to restore and maintain a safe and decent place to live. When basic expenses exceed income month after month, home maintenance is the usual casualty. Years of deferred maintenance can cause a downward spiral of home deterioration and unsafe living conditions.
A Brush with Kindness provides work that includes exterior painting, landscaping and completing minor fence repairs on homes of low-income homeowners.

If you or someone you know needs this type of help, please contact the Habitat office at 805-692-2226 or mail@sbhabitat.org for an eligibility form. 

Meet a Habitat Partner Family: The Bazans

Over the course of the following year we will introduce a new partner family each month.

Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County is proud to partner with the Bazan Family in the construction of their new home. Sara and Angel Bazan are the parents of two boys: Chimaway and Casmali. The family currently lives in a semi-converted garage which is not of adequate size for a family of four. The boys are looking forward to living closer to the Boys' and Girls' Club where they are involved in music groups.

The Bazans were selected from a large applicant pool due to their need for affordable and adequate shelter, their willingness to partner with Habitat, and their ability to pay a no-interest mortgage. They will be one of the 12 new homeowners of the Canon Perdido Affordable Homes.

Sara and Angel will begin Habitat's Homeownership Readiness Curriculum later this month which will prepare them to be successful and long-term homeowners. The 16-month curriculum begins with an 8-week financial literacy course taught by the Santa Barbara Housing Authority.