Our Programs
Affordable Homeownership
Partnering with families to build strength, stability, and self-reliance.
At Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Salt Lake Area, we believe that everyone deserves a decent place to live. We partner with families, volunteers, and donors to build or improve places people can call home. Our mission is to bring people together to build homes, communities, and hope.
The Path to Homeownership
Qualified Habitat homebuyers are active participants in building a better future. They are identified by three key criteria:
- • In need of better housing: Dealing with poorly made, unhealthy, or unaffordable housing, or homes inaccessible for disabilities.
- • Able to pay an affordable mortgage: Mortgage payments cycle back into the community to help build more affordable houses.
- • Willing to partner: Homebuyers put in hundreds of hours of "sweat equity" and attend classes on personal finance and maintenance.
What makes a Habitat home affordable?
Our unique approach ensures that Habitat homes remain affordable for working families along the Wasatch Front:
1. Modest, well-designed homes
We build simple, decent homes that meet essential needs while keeping long-term maintenance costs low.
2. Lower long-term costs
Energy-efficient designs reduce utility bills, and our no-profit pricing ensures families pay only the actual cost of the home.
3. Affordable mortgages
Habitat homeowners pay an affordable mortgage, which is cycled back into the community to help build more homes.
4. Community-powered construction
We rely on volunteers and donated materials to keep costs low, fostering community connection at every build site.
Sweat Equity: investing in the future
Habitat for Humanity is a partnership, not a giveaway. Every adult homebuyer contributes 225 hours of sweat equity:
- Building their own home and the homes of their neighbors.
- Participating in the STEP program to support fellow homeowners.
- Volunteering in our Habitat ReStore home improvement centers.
- Attending financial literacy and home maintenance classes.
Who qualifies for a Habitat home?
We follow fair and transparent selection criteria based on three main pillars:
- Need for safe, affordable housing: Applicants may be experiencing overcrowding or unsafe conditions.
- Ability to pay: Homeowners must have a stable income to pay their affordable mortgage.
- Willingness to partner: Applicants must complete the required sweat equity and education.
help us build homes, communities, and hope
Global Village
🌍 2026 Kenya Trip Recap: Read reflections from our March 2026 journey to Kenya.
building beyond borders
Help build strength, stability, self-reliance, and shelter.
Our Global Village program is an immersive, international, short-term volunteer initiative that allows you to travel and build or improve safe, affordable housing alongside local communities worldwide. Spend a week working directly with partner families, building meaningful connections, and gaining an insider look at the housing challenges families are facing.
Origins + History
Since 1989, Global Village volunteer trips have brought life-altering momentum to international home building. Over the program's first two decades alone, more than 60,000 volunteers traveled with over 5,000 teams to build strength, stability, and self-reliance alongside future homeowners. The financial donations and physical labor generated by these traveling teams have directly helped build or improve more than 10,000 homes, impacting families in nearly 60 countries and providing them with a decent, affordable place to call home. The program continues to grow as a leading voice for shelter, currently coordinating approximately 466 teams and engaging more than 6,000 volunteers annually.
Our Goal for Every Trip
Every milestone achieved on a global build site feeds directly into a larger vision. Our Global Village teams dramatically expand access to decent and affordable places to call home by focusing on five core pillars:
- Lending a Helping Hand: Partnering directly with local communities to alleviate critical housing needs through active physical building, rehabilitation, and repairs.
- Mobilizing Critical Resources: Generating crucial funding streams to sustain local operations; for instance, U.S. teams have generated millions of dollars annually to accelerate structural builds.
- Preserving Local Wisdom: Learning, respecting, and utilizing indigenous building practices honed over generations to naturally optimize a home’s durability and environmental performance.
- Fostering True Ownership: Cultivating accountability by building with families rather than for them, working on equal footing while future homeowners complete their sweat equity.
- Creating Lifelong Advocates: Empowering team members to return home as vocal, fully activated champions for just and fair housing policies across the globe.
Join the team & make a difference
Our volunteer roster for the upcoming season is closing fast,
and our partner organizations are finalizing logistics as we speak.
Habitat Cares
Partnering with local networks to equip neighbors with essentials for stable, dignified living spaces.
We partner with local nonprofits and case managers to provide household goods, furniture, and essential supplies to individuals and families rebuilding after a crisis. Through referrals from more than 80 community partners, Habitat Cares supports people transitioning from homelessness, incarceration, domestic violence, addiction treatment, and other high‑need situations.
Habitat Cares VIP Referrals
Supplies For a Fresh Start
Moving to a new place is an incredible achievement, but filling it with what you need can be tough. We partner with local agencies to provide quality furniture and home goods to families transitioning into stable, permanent housing.
VIP Private Shopping
By Appointment Only: Operating Tuesdays through Fridays between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM.
Monthly Saturday Showroom
Saturday Service: Our VIP showroom is open one Saturday per month, strictly on a first-come, first-served basis for walk-ins. No appointment needed. 30-minute time limit.
VIP Referral Requirements
To ensure equitable resource distribution, our supplies are accessible exclusively through our partner referral network. Working hand-in-hand with local agencies allows us to provide meaningful, lasting support for our neighbors when it matters most.
Emergency &
Basic Needs Relief
Supporting Our Unhoused Neighbors
We are deeply committed to supporting our neighbors navigating homelessness by providing immediate, practical aid. We distribute critical supplies directly from our inventory to individuals and street outreach teams to ensure our neighbors have essential gear when they need it most:
- Essential Supplies: Tarps, blankets, sleeping bags, water bottles, and nonperishable food items.
- Seasonal Items: Cooling towels, reusable water bottles, sunscreen, hand warmers, and protective hats.
*Supplies are distributed based on current inventory and availability. Outreach teams looking to coordinate bulk supplies for their clients can contact us directly.
Community Partner Donations
Providing Excess Supplies to Partner Orgs
We partner with nonprofits, case managers, and housing advocacy groups to streamline access to critical resources for Salt Lake, Davis, and Tooele counties. When we receive a surplus of supplies and materials, we want those resources out in the community helping people.
- Dependent on Current Surplus: Materials are distributed based on fluctuating inventory levels, seasonal availability, and current supply chain conditions.
- Limited-Use Policy: To ensure resources are shared equitably across the community, participating organizations may request agency-level program assistance or project support up to twice per year.
become a community partner
If your organization would like to join our referral network and
begin connecting your clients with our supplies or services, please contact us:
