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Bernice Martinez and her son Jose Avilez, 4, stand in front of their nearly completed duplex on Basin Road in Cave Creek. Bernice and her husband Valentin Avilez are buying the duplex from Habitat for Humanity Desert Foothills.
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Rising costs pressuring housing charity
by Kathleen Stinson

DESERT FOOTHILLS – Cave Creek residents Bernice Martinez and Valentin Avilez

this September will see their American dream of owning a home come true.

The married couple are blue collar workers, both of whom work in the area. Bernice cleans houses and Valentin is a landscape worker. They have two children, a nine‑year‑old and a four‑year‑old.

Martinez and Avilez were recently approved for a no interest $95,000 home loan and will move from a two‑bedroom trailer to a new three‑bedroom duplex in Cave Creek–one of four units built along Basin Road by Habitat for Humanity‑Desert Foothills.

“Growing up here, I would find it difficult to live anywhere other than Cave Creek – it’s important to me to live someplace quiet, peaceful and away from the city,” Bernice said.

While their dream is coming true, other low‑income working families may not be so lucky. With land prices and construction costs going up in the Foothills area, that combination is adversely affecting Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to provide affordable housing.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit Christian charity that has affiliates nationwide. Although there are several affiliates in Maricopa County, only the Desert Foothills Habitat group recently had to raise its income eligibility requirement because of rising costs, said Dan Dooley, board member of the Foothills affiliate.

“We’ve (locally) had to focus on another group of people who need affordable housing,” Dooley said.

Jack Gardner, the local affiliate’s president, declined to say how much it cost Habitat to build the four new homes along Basin Road, but he did say they had to spend more than the $95,000 each duplex is selling for.

Dooley said the affiliate raised the income eligibility requirement in order to make certain those low‑income families who are eligible to buy the homes can afford to pay the monthly mortgage.

About five years ago, families earning 20 to 50 percent of the county’s median family income were eligible for a Habitat house, Dooley said, but now those earning 30 to 75 percent of that median income are eligible.

The median family income in Maricopa County has increased from $53,100 in 2000 to more than $60,000 this year, according to state and federal estimates.

The local Habitat group in September will accept applications from potential homeowners for three new housing units they plan to build in the Foothills. The affiliate has thus far received inquiries from two school teachers, a church pre‑school teacher and an employee of Home Depot, Dooley said.

Habitat for Humanity‑Desert Foothills has three basic initial criteria for eligibility to buy one of their properties. Recipients must be 1) legal residents of the United States, 2) in need of affordable housing, and 3) fall within the group’s income guidelines.

Reach the reporter at kathleen@thedesertadvocate.com.

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