North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity

Our mission
“Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope.”

Our vision
“A world where everyone has a decent place to live.”

Habitat for Humanity and its affiliated organizations will not proselytize. This means that Habitat will not offer assistance on the expressed or implied condition that people must either adhere to or convert to a particular faith, or listen and respond to messaging designed to induce conversion to a particular faith. In other words, Habitat for Humanity will partner with people of any faith or with no religious affiliation at all. We are an ecumenical Christian housing ministry that is guided by our Christian faith, but we are not a church. We are also not affiliated with a particular Christian denomination.

• Habitat at a glance
• Printable Frequently Asked Questions

Habitat for Humanity is an equal housing lender.

North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity serves the northern half of St. Louis County, Minnesota, from the communities of Orr to Cotton and Hoyt Lakes to Hibbing. Since 1995, Habitat has served 15 communities: Aurora, Babbitt, Biwabik, Buhl, Chisholm, Cook, Embarrass, Ely, Eveleth, Gilbert, Hibbing, Mountain Iron, Tower, Soudan, and Virginia. Our affiliate was established when members of the communities we serve saw the need for affordable housing in our region. Our staff, volunteers, partner families, and board members have come from across our entire service area to ensure geographical representation.

Donations of materials, land, funds, or professional labor to North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity go primarily to build homes in our local communities. As the organization costs money to run, a small portion of our funding does go to running our local affiliate. Our homebuilding philosophy of “simple, decent, and affordable” also carries over to our administrative expenses. In 2022, 90 percent of all expenses were used to build homes.

Partner families are not given a Habitat home. They work in partnership with habitat by providing sweat equity and also paying back the cost of the home to Habitat through an affordable mortgage. The mortgage payments are put back into a revolving fund for the home building program. The mortgage payments are able to fund one new home per year.

Materials and professional labor are items that would need to be purchased if not donated. In cases where materials or professional labor have been donated, the basic value of these donations are charged to the mortgage and recuperated over the mortgage term to be used over and over again in the building program.

As a Christian organization, our affiliate also gives a tithe of our undesignated donations; that tithe goes directly to building homes in Mexico. As a result of this tithe, for every family that is served in North St. Louis County, a family in Mexico is also served.

North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. Our tax ID is 41-1791050. Our fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. Audits are available upon request.

Habitat works through volunteer expertise in building house, volunteer labor, and tax-deductible donations of money and materials. Habitat’s objective is simple: build simple, decent, affordable and energy efficient homes for families in need of safe housing.

Habitat is not a give-away program. We build with families, not for families. In addition to a small down payment and affordable monthly mortgage payments, each adult homeowner family member invest at least 200 hours of their own labor (“sweat equity”) into building their own home and other future Habitat homes.

For our homeownership program, we define a family as at least one person. Families are selected based on three criteria:
• Need for housing
• Ability to pay back an affordable mortgage
• Willingness to partner with NSLCHFH

Families apply through the North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity office. Once the application is completed and turned in to the office, it then goes to the Family Selection committee. The committee then reviews the application and selects families based on the three criteria. More information about the home ownership program can be found by clicking here.

North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity is a volunteer organization run by and all-volunteer governing board and volunteer committees. Staff are employed to support the committees as they carry out Habitat’s mission to build affordable homes with families in need of housing in North St. Louis County. In 2022, 90% of all funds raised were used for home construction.

An important key factor for NSLCHFH is our partners. We partner with not only the families but with communities, churches, business, organizations, and individuals to make home ownership a reality for families in need. Without the support from these groups and individuals like you, Habitat for Humanity’s mission of eliminating poverty housing would never be attained.

North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity, as an affiliate, maintains standards set by Habitat International and, in turn receives information and training from it; but the affiliate is primarily responsible for all other aspects of its work. One of Habitat International’s requirements is that an affiliate tithe ten percent of its undesignated funding to help build houses in other countries, usually at a much lower cost than is possible in the United States. NSLCHFH has chosen to have its tithe sent to Habitat Mexico. For each family that is served in North St. Louis County, a family in Mexico is also served.

Each affiliate must also abide by state and national requirements for non-profit organizations. North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity has bet and is complying with these requirements.

Still have questions about Habitat? Then call the office at 218-749-8910 or email us at habitat@nslchfh.org and we will answer them for you.