The organization is now called Heartland Hope and Homes after its board of directors decided to disaffiliate with the national Habitat for Humanity organization.

According to Heartland Executive Director Rod Mullins, the organization’s board of directors recently made the decision to change how it approaches the business and to operate as a purely local charity.

“If anything,” he said, “we are increasing our focus of charities.”

Under the Habitat for Humanity umbrella, the organization’s goal was to build one house for one family in need per year. Since its establishment in Webster County in 1993, the organization has accomplished that, building 28 homes across Webster and Humboldt counties.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Light fixtures are some of the items available for purchase at the Heartland Home Store, 118 N. 12th St.

However, the board of directors had a broader vision for the organization in order to help more people.

“We hope to get to where we can do two houses, maybe even three or four houses a year,” Mullins explained.

The expanded vision of the Heartland Hope and Homes directors also includes helping the families beyond just getting them into a new house, helping them navigate the difficulties the future might hold.

“Owning a home and everything that comes with it, if you’ve never done it before, it can be daunting,” Mullins said. “One of the things that I believe is it’s not only about helping them today, but setting them up for success going forward.”

Part of setting the families up for success is building higher-quality houses, Mullins said.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Interior and exterior paints are available at the Heartland Home Store, 118 N. 12th St.

“(Habitat’s) way of doing it is to build a very conservative home that is decent, but no bells or whistles, nothing fancy about it, no garages, no basements,” he said.

A house in Iowa should have a basement, Mullins added.

Heartland’s goal is to build houses that will appreciate over time for the owners so that they can continue to benefit from the home years on down the road.

Another way the organization plans to help better support the families it serves is how the home is financed. Under the Habitat for Humanity model, families received a mortgage through the organization equivalent to the cost of the home, but at a zero percent interest rate. While this has been a successful way of managing this part of the process over the years, Mullins noted that it doesn’t help families with their credit scores as the 0% mortgages are not reported to the credit bureaus.

Heartland will work with the families to receive a low-interest mortgage from a bank so that those monthly mortgage payments will help their credit scores. Currently, he said, most mortgage loans are at around 2.5%, and some are even under 2%.

To help fund the upfront costs of building the homes, the organization has a resale store, formerly known as the ReStore, located at 118 N. 12th St. It will now be called the Heartland Home Store.

Despite COVID-19 causing the store to close for about three months last year, sales were “the best they ever were,” Mullins said.

The organization’s fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30. For FY20, even with three months shut down, the ReStore sales were up 43% over the previous fiscal year. And now, with three months left in FY21, sales are projected to be 40% over FY20.

“I’m thankful to be a part of this organization,” Mullins said. “We’ve got a lot of good people who volunteer here, work here, donate to us, care about us.”