Habitat for Humanity Raises Roofs, Spirits

by Courtney Ellis

A crew of volunteers attach siding to one of our Santa Ana homes. Learn more about volunteer opportunities at habitatoc.org/volunteer.

The Presbytery of Los Ranchos has a longstanding history with Habitat for Humanity. From its earliest days, congregations from Anaheim, First to Yorba Linda Presbyterian have partnered with Habitat, a nonprofit dedicated to providing homes and hope for under-resourced residents of Orange County and beyond.

“The Presbytery’s been an incredible partner for us,” said Chris Hoch, Director of Faith Relations for Habitat OC. He mentioned that he has six upcoming speaking events, and four of them are at churches in the Presbytery of Los Ranchos. He said that he’s continually inspired both by these churches “willingness to engage” and because many of them “have been partners from the very beginning.”

Hoch was inspired to join Habitat in part because of the transience of his own childhood. “I grew up in a single parent household,” he said. “My mom did the best she could, but housing was always an issue for us. We moved about 15 times before I went off to college.” As an adult, Hoch became a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene. About two years ago he came on staff at Habitat OC and has loved the integration of his faith with the opportunity to make a difference for families like the one in which he grew up.

Habitat continues to grow and adapt to the changing needs of the OC community. In addition to  building homes, they’ve also begun a program called Home Repair. Home Repair seeks to offer needed upgrades to existing homes as a way of helping people stay in the homes they already have.

Noted Hoch, Home Repair typically targets seniors, veterans, and single parent homes. “[Participants] have to own their own home and then they have to apply to us through the city for whatever repairs are necessary: mold, new roof, accessibility things like handrails in the restroom. The idea behind it is that we’re keeping people in affordable housing.” Home Repair is one additional way Habitat OC seeks to be a good steward of existing resources, in addition to building new homes.

One goal Habitat OC is pursuing in 2025 is to build up a pipeline of 100 homes. According to Hoch, Habitat OC has “built 239 [homes] over the past 37 years.” These 239 homes have helped over 400 families, as new families move in when others move out.

“We really want to ramp up our production and do 100 in the next three years,” Hoch continued. “And then double our production after that. That’s not to say they’ll all be built in that time, but that we’ll have started the process of permitting and hopefully construction. We’re also developing several other sites and getting them going on their projects.”

This mother and her two kids celebrate their new home in Santa Ana. More renderings and photos of our homes can be found at https://habitatoc.org/our-homes.

When asked how individuals and congregations might continue to support the work of Habitat, Hoch began by asking for prayer.

“I always start with prayer,” he said. “It’s a cliché, but that’s because it’s true. Prayer makes a difference whether it’s with the people we’re serving or in how we see them.” Beyond that, Habitat can always use additional funding and volunteers.

“We’re trying to build 100 homes, and as you can imagine ,the cost of that is pretty significant,” said Hoch. “Our fundraising goal for each one is about $150,000. That bridges the gap between our cost to build it and the familiy’s cost to what they can pay to buy it. Some are a little less, some a little more, but that’s the number that we target to see if it’s an appropriate project for us.”

In addition, Habitat is always looking for people who want to get creative with gifts to the organization. “We’d love if there were more partners who would give us more discounts on land, or gift it to us outright,” said Hoch. “We’d love help with the speeding up of processes that can hold us up.” For those interested in building homes or assisting on construction sites, construction opportunities will be coming in the summer. For those who want to volunteer in other ways, there are opportunities to serve in the offices or the retail resale center as well.

Hoch stressed his gratitude to all of the churches that have partnered with Habitat over the years. “As a pastor, I’ve been super encouraged by seeing some of the churches that we’ve worked with,” he said. “The lifetime giving from some of these churches is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars over 30 or 40 years. I’m just really appreciative of all that the faith organizations that have given.”

When it comes to the difference Habitat makes, Hoch was effusive. “I’ve been able to hear some of the stories from the families whose lives we’re impacting,” he said. “I understand where some of these kids are coming from.”

Habitat kids from one of our families at the Groundbreaking Ceremony for our next development near Santa Ana College. These six townhomes will be built for low-income families with one of those an ADA-accessible unit.

He shared one story from a family of three teenagers who all told him how Habitat had transformed their lives. The oldest brother shared that he never really memorized his address before because it didn’t matter—he knew his family would have to move again soon. But after moving into a Habitat home, he shared with Hoch that he was excited to learn his address as a sign of his new stability.

If you’re interested in learning more about serving with Habitat, or you’d like to have Hoch present to your congregation, you can learn more at habitatoc.org. If anyone is interested in becoming a Habitat homeowner, or to share the opportunity with anyone looking to own their first home, Hoch noted that there was a process for this, too.

“The first step is to register for our online homebuyer orientation on our website,” he said. “Through the orientation, you can review the qualifications including income limits, learn more about partnering with Habitat, and see what the selection process looks like.” To learn more about becoming a Habitat homeowner, check out habitatoc.org/attend-an-orientation.

Courtney Ellis, Associate Pastor at Presbyterian Church of the Master in Mission Viejo, is an author and storyteller. Courtney reports on the presbytery’s mission partnerships.

Courtney’s latest book is Looking Up: A Birders Guide to Hope Through Grief, published by InterVarsity Press.