Who We Serve
We partner with low-to moderate-income New Yorkers, the majority of whom are people of color, single mothers, and individuals impacted by systemic inequality, as well as special focuses on seniors and climate disaster-impacted homeowners seeking support to live safely and sustainably in their homes.
How We Work
We are a non-profit developer and housing justice organization. Through a combination of direct service initiatives and advocacy efforts, we strive to create lasting impact through our homebuilding, preservation, and tenant-to-ownership conversion programs and by promoting equitable access to homeownership.
Why Our Work Matters
Over 50% of New York City households are rent burdened, with 60% of this group severely rent burdened (spending over 50% of their income on rent). The homeownership rate in New York City is 30%—well below the nationwide average of 66%. We strive to promote equitable access to homeownership, and reshape the geography of the wealth, health, and education inequality across our region.
Our commitment:
Habitat NYC and Westchester believes in a world where everyone deserves a safe, stable, and affordable home, and we anchor our work in helping to create this world.
- Our pursuit of justice endeavors to mobilize a movement that reforms the systems that built and sustain housing inequity.
- Our drive for equity seeks to establish an environment that creates unbiased treatment and outcomes.
- Our dedication to diversity honors and represents the differences among our coworkers and the communities we serve.
- Our practice of inclusion commits to elevating the voices and needs of our diverse workforce, communities, and partners.
Our values:
Our vision is an equitable New York in which all people have access to healthy, affordable homes. As we work to fulfill our mission of transforming lives and communities by building and preserving affordable homes and by uniting all New Yorkers around the cause of affordable housing, we are guided by our core values: humility, courage, and accountability.
Our vision is audacious and Habitat is only part of the solution. The housing crisis is bigger than all of us collectively. Our work demands our humility as much as our boldness.
Courage emboldens us to respectfully question, embrace healthy conflict, and take necessary risks to move ever closer to our vision.
Holding ourselves and one another accountable allows us to learn from our mistakes and continually improve our programs, policies, and procedures.
