A non-profit organization that works to build homes and hope for people eager to achieve home ownership is celebrating a milestone in 2024. Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity will mark its 40th anniversary serving northwestern Vermont with a mission the group believes has never been as vital as it is during the region’s housing crisis.”The demand has always been there, but it’s never been quite this dramatic,” said David Mullin, the CEO of Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity. Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1984 as an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. Ever since, it has been committed to building safe and energy-efficient homes that stay perpetually affordable to own, Mullin explained.”When I first came on board, we were doing one house every other year,” Mullin recalled in an interview Thursday with NBC5 News. “Now, we’re doing five or six and our board has recently made a commitment to move it to ten a year, just because of the need in the community.”The nonprofit serves Chittenden, Grand Isle, Franklin, and Lamoille Counties, buying land and building homes — often with volunteer labor and donated goods and services. It then sells the finished properties at cost, way below market rate, to homeowners who are at or below 80% of the area’s median income and who are working, so they can cover the mortgage.”It used to be very, very low-income families couldn’t afford a house,” Mullin noted, added how a shortage of housing is stressing the market. “Now, even higher-income families are unable to find a house. In some cases, even if you had the money, you can’t find a house in this area. So Habitat for Humanity is really driven more so than ever to increase that pool of affordable housing and help more families.”A board of directors selects homebuyers from a pool of candidates. Nik Gruswitz will become a first-time homeowner this summer, buying half of a Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity duplex in Burlington he is now helping build.”The year before last, I moved four times in a year,” Gruswitz lamented.Gruswitz told NBC5 News he has often had to pay more in rent than he can afford working in human services as a direct care provider. He also said he has even been forced out of properties when landlords wanted to do something else with their buildings.That will change when Gruswitz, 49, takes over the mortgage of the home. He said doing so will achieve his goals to stay in Burlington’s Old North End community, which he loves. He also said the move will help him stay in the job he finds rewarding.”When you have so many people in so many jobs that are essential, not making enough to own here, you know, then they have to make tough decisions,” Gruswitz said, suggesting the affordability problem in the region can stress other areas of the economy — including area employers’ job retention efforts.In this anniversary year, Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity said it is working on projects in Burlington, Morrisville, Swanton, and South Burlington. A special project starting this year is the Harvest Crossing subdivision in Underhill, which is a partnership with the United Church of Underhill. That will result in six single-family homes and two duplexes. The organization also said it recently purchased property in Winooski and is looking for more land in Franklin County.Because of how busy it will be in future years, Mullin said Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity will really need community support, and not just in the form of financial donations. He said shoppers can help the cause by supporting the organization’s ReStores in Williston, Milton, and Swanton with purchases and donations of household goods the stores can sell to raise money.Green Mountain Habitat receives no funding from the national office of Habitat for Humanity, Mullin emphasized, meaning all its fundraising is done locally.The affiliate’s CEO also stressed how needed volunteers are on job sites. He encouraged businesses and other groups to reach out and consider a service day.”Anybody can volunteer on a Habitat for Humanity site,” Mullin told NBC5 News. “Men, women, younger people, retired people. You don’t have to know how to build. Most of our volunteers have never built houses before, and we have a lot of companies that are bringing teams out to volunteer a lot of times because they do remote work and the employees don’t get to see each other much anymore. So working on a Habitat home helps them get together and they help a family in need. Volunteers are going to be more important than ever for us.”Nik Gruswitz said he deeply appreciates the community support that will help him achieve a longtime dream of homeownership. “It can be very moving at times,” Gruswitz said of the experience of working on his future home alongside volunteers. “It’s not just like a financial benefit. It’s also, you know, more say and agency in your life to own a place and have so much more say over it.”Gruswitz said he considers the support in his homeownership process not a handout, but as the organization calls it, a “hand up” toward homeownership.
A non-profit organization that works to build homes and hope for people eager to achieve home ownership is celebrating a milestone in 2024. Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity will mark its 40th anniversary serving northwestern Vermont with a mission the group believes has never been as vital as it is during the region’s housing crisis.
“The demand has always been there, but it’s never been quite this dramatic,” said David Mullin, the CEO of Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity.
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Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1984 as an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. Ever since, it has been committed to building safe and energy-efficient homes that stay perpetually affordable to own, Mullin explained.
“When I first came on board, we were doing one house every other year,” Mullin recalled in an interview Thursday with NBC5 News. “Now, we’re doing five or six and our board has recently made a commitment to move it to ten a year, just because of the need in the community.”
The nonprofit serves Chittenden, Grand Isle, Franklin, and Lamoille Counties, buying land and building homes — often with volunteer labor and donated goods and services. It then sells the finished properties at cost, way below market rate, to homeowners who are at or below 80% of the area’s median income and who are working, so they can cover the mortgage.
“It used to be very, very low-income families couldn’t afford a house,” Mullin noted, added how a shortage of housing is stressing the market. “Now, even higher-income families are unable to find a house. In some cases, even if you had the money, you can’t find a house in this area. So Habitat for Humanity is really driven more so than ever to increase that pool of affordable housing and help more families.”
A board of directors selects homebuyers from a pool of candidates.
Nik Gruswitz will become a first-time homeowner this summer, buying half of a Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity duplex in Burlington he is now helping build.
“The year before last, I moved four times in a year,” Gruswitz lamented.
Gruswitz told NBC5 News he has often had to pay more in rent than he can afford working in human services as a direct care provider. He also said he has even been forced out of properties when landlords wanted to do something else with their buildings.
That will change when Gruswitz, 49, takes over the mortgage of the home. He said doing so will achieve his goals to stay in Burlington’s Old North End community, which he loves. He also said the move will help him stay in the job he finds rewarding.
“When you have so many people in so many jobs that are essential, not making enough to own here, you know, then they have to make tough decisions,” Gruswitz said, suggesting the affordability problem in the region can stress other areas of the economy — including area employers’ job retention efforts.
In this anniversary year, Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity said it is working on projects in Burlington, Morrisville, Swanton, and South Burlington. A special project starting this year is the Harvest Crossing subdivision in Underhill, which is a partnership with the United Church of Underhill. That will result in six single-family homes and two duplexes.
The organization also said it recently purchased property in Winooski and is looking for more land in Franklin County.
Because of how busy it will be in future years, Mullin said Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity will really need community support, and not just in the form of financial donations. He said shoppers can help the cause by supporting the organization’s ReStores in Williston, Milton, and Swanton with purchases and donations of household goods the stores can sell to raise money.
Green Mountain Habitat receives no funding from the national office of Habitat for Humanity, Mullin emphasized, meaning all its fundraising is done locally.
The affiliate’s CEO also stressed how needed volunteers are on job sites. He encouraged businesses and other groups to reach out and consider a service day.
“Anybody can volunteer on a Habitat for Humanity site,” Mullin told NBC5 News. “Men, women, younger people, retired people. You don’t have to know how to build. Most of our volunteers have never built houses before, and we have a lot of companies that are bringing teams out to volunteer a lot of times because they do remote work and the employees don’t get to see each other much anymore. So working on a Habitat home helps them get together and they help a family in need. Volunteers are going to be more important than ever for us.”
Nik Gruswitz said he deeply appreciates the community support that will help him achieve a longtime dream of homeownership.
“It can be very moving at times,” Gruswitz said of the experience of working on his future home alongside volunteers. “It’s not just like a financial benefit. It’s also, you know, more say and agency in your life to own a place and have so much more say over it.”
Gruswitz said he considers the support in his homeownership process not a handout, but as the organization calls it, a “hand up” toward homeownership.
