Featured Family

The Habitat Approach to Homeownership: To qualify for a Habitat home, families must live in substandard housing prior to becoming homeowners and earn between 25% and 80% of the area median income. We believe in a hand up, not a handout.

As such, each Habitat family contributes 300 to 500 hours of “sweat equity” in the building of their home and other Habitat homes. Most homeowners complete some of their sweat equity hours at the Alexandria and Chantilly ReStores. Habitat homeowners pay a 20- to 30-year, zero interest mortgage and make a 1% down payment on their homes. Homeowner mortgage payments are then reinvested into future Habitat homes.

Habitat for Humanity does not make a profit on any homes sold, which is why our ReStores are so important. Read more here.

The Seifu Family: The Seifu family apartment is full of life with three growing children and two busy parents. Their three children are all very successful; Nahom, 18 years old, is a freshman at West Virginia University. He is interested in pursuing a degree in law or business administration. Dagmawe, 17 years old, is a junior in high school. He is very interested in the medical field, and he plans to join the US military soon. Both boys play basketball and serve at their church’s services with their sister, Sina, who is 11 years old and is in the 7th grade. She enjoys sprinting and religious music. Their parents, Teshome and Genet, have been married for 19 years. Teshome is a parking attendant in DC, and Genet works in a restaurant at National Airport.

They are from Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia, and in 2003 they won a visa lottery to move to the United States. In Ethiopia, Teshome was a cost accountant and Genet was a secretary. It is difficult for Teshome to get work as an accountant here because of the different requirements for education.

Housing is particularly important to this family because they are currently living in an apartment too small for five people. Teshome explained how excited he was about a Habitat home: “I am very interested in being part of Habitat. I don’t know how to express this with words. It shows how Americans are good people.”