About Us
The goal of Habitat is to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the face of the earth by working in partnership with people in need.  Using volunteer labor and donated funds and materials, Habitat builds or rehabilitates simple, decent houses and sells them to low-income families at cost, but with no interest added.

Habitat is a people-to-people partnership, which joins all of us together regardless of race, nationality, religion, or socioeconomic status.  That partnership begins with the homeowner families (partner families).  Habitat is not a giveaway program, but a joint venture in which those who benefit from the housing ministry are involved in the work at various levels.  They help with the construction of their own home, as well as the houses of their neighbors.

Habitat for Humanity of Bergen County
In 1994, in answer to the demand for affordable housing in Bergen County, New Jersey, Habitat for Humanity of Bergen County was born.  Our mission is, of course, consistent with that of our parent organization: to provide decent, affordable homes for hard-working Bergen County families.  

Since our founding, we have built and/or renovated fourteen homes: two in Teaneck, four in Hackensack, six in Englewood and two in East Rutherford.  We have partnered with fourteen families for a total of 75 family members residing in Habitat Bergen Homes.  We have partnered with Community groups and Churches to provide much needed renovation work to existing homes in Bergen County.  In addition, we have partnered with other not for profits to build food pantries and homes for homeless, teenage mothers.  Each year we tithe a part of our fundraised dollars to our sister affiliates in other parts of the world where dollars are a precious resource.  The opportunities that have been presented to our affiliate have given us pause to consider the desperate need of our neighbors in this otherwise, very wealthy County.  And we are not alone in our concern or our work.

To date over 6,500 volunteers have donated almost 200,000 hours toward our mission.  We sponsored a home in Veracruz for a Jimmy Carter Work Project and volunteers from Bergen County took part by helping to build and to be a part of that important work.  

In 2006, in response to the tragedy in the south, Habitat Bergen built four homes locally to ship to the south, and again, our volunteers traveled; this time to Lafayette, Louisiana and completed the construction of one of the four homes we have contributed for those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In addition, we are working in partnership with another not-for-profit, where we are renovating an existing building in Garfield, New Jersey.  This building will house teenage mothers and their babies.  Simply, we are building homes at a rate never before seen in our short history.

How We Do It
Through volunteer labor and tax-deductible donations of money and materials, Habitat builds and rehabilitates simple, decent house with the help of the homeowner (partner) families.  Habitat houses are sol to partner families at no profit, financed with affordable, no-interest loans. Te homeowners%u2019 monthly mortgage payments are recycled into a revolving fund that is used to build more houses.