People in your community partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. With our help, Habitat homeowners achieve the strength, stability and independence they need to build a better life for themselves and their families.
Habitat homeowners qualify based on these things: their need for a decent and affordable home, income, ability to pay, and willingness to partner.
What is Mutual Self Help Housing:
Habitat for Humanity of Southwest Montana is famous for our Mutual Self Help Housing program. The self-help program provides an opportunity for many very-low to low income families to achieve the dream of homeownership. The program makes homes affordable by allowing families to contribute “sweat equity”. A self-help group is organized to provide labor for the group members’ new homes.
The group consists of 4 to 8 families who work together under the guidance of a construction supervisor, provided by Habitat for Humanity of SWMT. Each family must contribute a minimum of 1,000 hours over the course of the build. Homeowners are encouraged to build their support team early on by asking friends and family to lend a hand to helping them achieve homeownership. Any hour contributed by your support team counts toward your 1,000 hours. The houses are built simultaneously and no family moves into their new house until every house in the self-help group is complete.
Income:
Every homeowner must demonstrate an ability to repay their home loan while also earning less than 60% of the area’s median income. Each applicant must have a minimum income of about $1,000 per month.
Yearly combined family income before taxes must be less than these numbers:
Silver Bow County
| 1 Person | 2 People | 3 People | 4 People | 5 People | 6 People | 7 People | 8 People |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Income | $15,000 | $17,150 | $19,300 | $21,400 | $23,150 | $24,850 | $26,600 | $28,300 |
| Very Low Income | $35,700 | $35,700 | $35,700 | $35,700 | $47,150 | $47,150 | $47,150 | $47,150 |
| Low Income | $57,100 | $57,100 | $57,100 | $57,100 | $75,350 | $75,350 | $75,350 | $75,350 |
Deer Lodge County
| 1 Person | 2 People | 3 People | 4 People | 5 People | 6 People | 7 People | 8 People |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Income | $15,000 | $17,150 | $19,300 | $21,400 | $23,150 | $24,850 | $26,600 | $28,300 |
| Very Low Income | $35,700 | $35,700 | $35,700 | $35,700 | $47,150 | $47,150 | $47,150 | $47,150 |
| Low Income | $57,100 | $57,100 | $57,100 | $57,100 | $75,350 | $75,350 | $75,350 | $75,350 |
Jefferson County
| 1 Person | 2 People | 3 People | 4 People | 5 People | 6 People | 7 People | 8 People |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Income | $17,700 | $20,200 | $22,750 | $25,250 | $27,300 | $29,300 | $31,350 | $33,350 |
| Very Low Income | $42,100 | $42,100 | $42,100 | $42,100 | $55,600 | $55,600 | $55,600 | $55,600 |
| Low Income | $67,350 | $67,350 | $67,350 | $67,350 | $88,900 | $88,900 | $88,900 | $88,900 |
Beaverhead County
| 1 Person | 2 People | 3 People | 4 People | 5 People | 6 People | 7 People | 8 People |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Income | $15,150 | $17,300 | $19,450 | $21,650 | $23,350 | $25,100 | $26,850 | $28,550 |
| Very Low Income | $36,050 | $36,050 | $36,050 | $36,050 | $47,600 | $47,600 | $47,600 | $47,600 |
| Low Income | $57,700 | $57,700 | $57,700 | $57,700 | $76,150 | $76,150 | $76,150 | $76,150 |
Powell County
| 1 Person | 2 People | 3 People | 4 People | 5 People | 6 People | 7 People | 8 People |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Income | $15,000 | $17,150 | $19,300 | $21,400 | $23,150 | $24,850 | $26,600 | $28,300 |
| Very Low Income | $35,700 | $35,700 | $35,700 | $35,700 | $47,150 | $47,150 | $47,150 | $47,150 |
| Low Income | $57,100 | $57,100 | $57,100 | $57,100 | $75,350 | $75,350 | $75,350 | $75,350 |
Madison County
| 1 Person | 2 People | 3 People | 4 People | 5 People | 6 People | 7 People | 8 People |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Income | $15,000 | $17,150 | $19,300 | $21,400 | $23,150 | $24,850 | $26,600 | $28,300 |
| Very Low Income | $35,700 | $35,700 | $35,700 | $35,700 | $47,150 | $47,150 | $47,150 | $47,150 |
| Low Income | $57,100 | $57,100 | $57,100 | $57,100 | $75,350 | $75,350 | $75,350 | $75,350 |
If you exceed the limits by about $10-15,000 you still qualify to help build your own home under a different program. Please apply on our sister site, National Affordable Housing Network.
Ability to Pay:
Every Habitat homeowner has a mortgage to pay. One of the factors that is considered when you apply for your mortgage is your debt compared to your income. We work with every potential homeowner to make sure they can afford their home. This means you’ll need to consider your other financial responsibilities as well. Basically, the less income you earn, the less debt you can afford to carry.
To Apply for Homeownership:
Complete and submit the application:
We will follow up with you soon after submittal to schedule an appointment to go over your application and discuss the program and your eligibility in detail.
The next step will be to request 1 of your 3 credit reports from annualcreditreport.com and bring that to your appointment.