How community partnerships lead to land opportunities that support our mission
Have you ever wondered what happens before construction begins on a Habitat home? If you attended the Breakfast for Humanity in May 2024, you learned about the steps we take before a build begins. Catch the recap here if you missed it, or click on the video at right/below!
In this post, we are going into more detail about the relationships that create Habitat homes – the partnerships we make in our communities that lead to building opportunities.
Obtaining land is often the most difficult part of our work, so we partner with faith groups, non-profit organizations, elected officials, and cities throughout the Metro Denver area to learn about opportunities to obtain land and increase the supply of affordable homes.
Here are a few examples of partnerships that lead to land opportunities, and how they support our mission.
Partners from diverse faith backgrounds support our mission through fundraising, volunteering and raising awareness about the need for affordable homeownership. But faith partnerships have also helped us acquire land.
Faith congregations are donating their vacant land to build affordable homeownership through initiatives like the Congregation Land Campaign. This partnership with Interfaith Alliance of Colorado helped Denver-area congregations who wanted to use their excess land to develop affordable housing. We have two upcoming affordable home developments that were made possible through our partnerships with two congregations.
Augustana Lutheran Church began its partnership with us in 2022. Augustana requested support and proposals from the Congregation Land Campaign which invited applications for an affordable housing developer to build homes on church-owned land. We responded to the request and are now building eight affordable homes on-site.
Mountain View United Church began its partnership with us in 2019. Mountain View United Church had a piece of vacant land and found a creative way to utilize the land that would help strengthen the community. They are leasing the land for these homes to Habitat Metro Denver for 99 years in a land lease agreement. This land lease allows Habitat to keep the homes affordable to buyers, who will pay less in property taxes. The land lease model also ensures the homes will be affordable for families who purchase the homes in the future.
We also have partnerships with other housing organizations that make a huge impact. One notable collaboration is with the West Denver Renaissance Collaborative (WDRC), whose goal is to support housing needs and community outcomes for West Denver residents. We partner with WDRC in their ADU program, where they help find families who have an interest and ability to build ADUs on their land, and we are the builder of the ADUs. Denver City Council supported the proposals for ADU rezoning in West Denver neighborhoods which allowed us to build affordable ADUs in that part of the city. To learn more about this partnership please visit our blog post about it here.
Through our strategic partnership with South Metro Housing Options (SMHO), the housing authority of Littleton, Colo., we take existing homes that they own, renovate them, and resell them affordably to buyers who make up to 80% of the area median income. This continues to be a unique opportunity for us to add permanent affordable for-sale homes to Littleton’s housing stock. Click here if you are interested in the current SMHO homes we have for sale.
Habitat is also a member of housing organizations whose mission is to move the needle on increasing the supply and preservation of affordable housing across the housing continuum. Those groups include the Colorado Affordable Housing Alliance (CAHA), the Neighborhood Development Collaborative (NDC), and Habitat Colorado’s Advocacy Committee. These partnerships have helped us strategically advocate for affordable homeownership.
We also prioritize our relationships with elected leaders at all levels of government. These relationships are crucial for us to gain support for policy change that is needed to continue to build affordable homeownership opportunities. This includes when we request zoning changes through local city councils, and advocate for city- or state-wide policies that support affordable homeownership.
For our Augustana Homes project, we gained funding support from Denver City Councilmember Amanda Sawyer of District 5.
We also went through a unique process and partnership with local government and other housing partners to obtain the land for our Villa Park Homes project. There was a plot of land in Denver that was supposed to be rezoned for residential lots, but we advocated for the land to be used for affordable homeownership. The West Denver Renaissance Collaborative advocated with us to obtain the land. With our projects we find ways to create homeownership opportunities on land that is underutilized and near transit. The land for Villa Park was sold to us by Denver for $1. This would not have been possible if it weren’t for the strong history we have with the City and County of Denver.
In 2016, we built 63 homes and a community park in the City of Sheridan. We obtained this land from a former elementary school and partnered with South Suburban Parks and Recreation to design and create a small public park near the affordable homes. By cultivating relationships with the school district and parks and recreation department, we utilized the land to build homes for families in the area.
We also partner with Laradon, a Denver organization that provides services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including a school, a youth center, an adult day program, employment programs, and community living. In 2019 Laradon had a piece of vacant land on their school campus that we redeveloped to build seven townhomes in the Globeville neighborhood of Denver.
Building affordable homes is only possible through partnerships – with donors, volunteers, staff, and, as we shared here, with organizations and community partners. These relationships demonstrate how partnerships can lead to affordable land opportunities. And when land is affordable, we can build homes that are located close to commerce and transit, and still affordable to low- to moderate-income buyers.
Cultivating and maintaining partnerships with groups and leaders in Metro Denver communities allows us to build more affordable housing in the Denver Metro area.
We are grateful to everyone who chooses to partner with us and who supports our mission.
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