In the midst of rising inflationary costs, Habitat for Humanity is asking for donations, which may restrict the number of new homes it builds

Little Rock, Arkansas – Along constructing other Habitat branches in the state, Saline County’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity expresses concern about the rising cost of new homes due to inflation.

The mission of Habitat for Humanity is to assist low-income individuals in finding affordable housing; nevertheless, the impact of inflation may limit the number of people that the organization can assist.

Habitat for Humanity in Saline County has been assisting families and individuals in finding “Forever Homes” between six months to a year and a half for almost 20 years. Nevertheless, the increased expense of building the homes is already having a detrimental knock-on impact.

“Inflation has definitely impacted us as far as our building and that started around COVID and shortly thereafter with the rise in building material costs and every other cost that goes into building a house like this,” Habitat for Humanity of Saline Co., Executive Director, Stephanie Griffin said.

It is having an effect on people who are eligible for Habitat benefits.

“The mortgage that is put forth to these habitat homeowners is based completely off of how much it takes us to build this house so with rising costs that obviously costs us more to build and in turn it obviously costs the homeowner a little bit more,” Griffin said.

Volunteers construct these houses, which when they’re operational immediately boost the local economy. Even though Habitat for Humanity is a sizable nonprofit, the branches that fall under its purview are primarily self-sufficient in their financial needs, receiving donations from the local community in addition to a small budget.

Habitat stated that if expenses don’t improve, they hope to prevent perhaps having to turn away house qualifiers.

“We need more donations. We need more monetary donations or even gift in kind donations of materials for houses because as things go, if we don’t have donations to sustain us then we will have to limit our number of houses that we build and probably cut down one or two houses each year,” Griffin said.

Habitat for Humanity reports that they are looking at additional affordable options for home projects in the future, after their contribution of Little Rock-based All Weather Insulated panels for their present construction.

On their existing home, Habitat for Humanity will resume construction tomorrow and work through Thursday.