OUR MISSON
Habitat for Humanity of Key West and Lower Florida Keys believes that everyone deserves a decent, safe and affordable place to live. Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope.
About us
OUR VISION
A world where everyone has a decent place to live.
WHAT WE DO
Habitat for Humanity of Key West and Lower Florida Key is a nonprofit organization that helps families build and improve places to call home. We believe affordable housing plays a critical role in strong and stable communities.
Habitat Lower Keys builds and repairs houses using volunteer labor and donations. Income-qualifying Lower Keys families purchase these houses through no-profit, no-interest mortgages. In order to qualify, the families must demonstrate a need for affordable housing, qualify for the loan, and be willing to partner with Habitat by completing homeownership courses and contributing 200-300 hours of sweat equity through work on their home or within the community.
ADVOCATE FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING
At Habitat for Humanity of Key West and Lower Florida Keys, we advocate to change policies and systems so that we can eliminate barriers to adequate, affordable housing. Building is part of the solution, but the less visible aspects of housing like laws, regulations, systems and rules about land and the built environment are critical components, too. Sustainable and inclusive policies and systems can promote access to decent housing, while others can create barriers. And those barriers make it harder to find land for construction, build a home or be able to afford a place to live.
Habitat for Humanity’s approach to advocacy is based on decades of on-the-ground experience and policy expertise. From our deep understanding of housing and its central role in providing opportunities for families, we work to reform laws in a non-confrontational, nonpartisan way.
PROMOTE DIGNITY AND HOPE
We believe that no one lives in dignity until everyone can live in dignity. We believe that every person has something to contribute and something to gain from creating communities in which everyone has a decent, affordable place to live. We believe that dignity and hope are best achieved through equitable, accountable partnerships.
SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE AND TRANSFORMATION DEVELOPMENT
We view our work as successful when it transforms lives and promotes positive and lasting social, economic, and spiritual change within a community; when it is based on mutual trust and fully shared accomplishment; and when it demonstrates responsible stewardship of all resources entrusted to us.
Policies
Non-proselytizing Policy
Habitat for Humanity and its affiliate organizations will not proselytize. Nor will Habitat work with entities or individuals who insist on proselytizing as part of their work with Habitat.
This means that Habitat will not offer assistance on the expressed or implied condition that people must adhere to or convert to a particular faith or listen and respond to messaging designed to induce conversion to a particular faith.
Equal Housing Opportunity
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation.
We encourage and support an affirmative advertising and marketing program in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.
Diversity in the Workplace
We believe in a world where everyone — no matter who we are or where we come from — deserves a decent place to live. To create this world, our work must always break down barriers, bring people of all backgrounds together, and generate equity, respect and lasting change.
Whether on a work site or in the workplace, we are committed to removing the visible and invisible barriers to opportunity and self-expression — barriers that limit a person, a family or an employee from reaching their full potential.
We are committed to fostering a culture where diversity, equity and inclusion are core to our thinking, strategies and actions.
Land Acknowledgement
Statement
Habitat for Humanity of Key West and Lower Florida Keys acknowledges that long before the Florida Keys were explored and colonized by the Spanish and English, the islands were home to multiple tribes of Native Americans.
Archaeological evidence shows the Keys were occupied as early as 4,000 years ago. By around 1000 years ago, the Native Keys peoples had become a somewhat independent group under the influences of both the mainland Calusa and Tequesta tribes. These Native Keys people lived here until the 1760s, when they were moved to Cuba by the Spanish after Florida had been ceded to the British. For the next 60 years, the Florida Keys were only erratically occupied by Bahamian wreckers and turtlers and Cuban fishermen. In 1822, after Florida became a territory of the United States, American settlers established communities at Key West and Key Vaca (Marathon), which grew and led to the Florida Keys we recognize today.
Habitat for Humanity of Key West and Lower Florida Keys acknowledges its obligation to honor the past, present, and future Native residents and cultures of the Florida Keys and to seek to understand our place within that history. We also acknowledge the undeniable lasting impact the Native Americans had on the development of the Florida Keys and the ingenuity it took to live here.