Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bangor - A Brush with Kindness Program
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bangor (HFHGB) will begin repairing homes in partnership with qualified, low-income homeowners. The new housing repair program, A Brush with Kindness (ABWK), is an exterior home preservation service that offers painting, landscaping, minor repair services, and basic shell weatherization for homeowners in need.
ABWK helps low-income homeowners who, due to age, disability, and/or family circumstances, struggle to maintain the exterior of their houses reclaim their homes with pride and dignity. The work is done by volunteers using donated materials whenever possible. The homeowner must demonstrate need, willingness to partner with HFHGB, and the ability to repay a no-interest loan. Payments made by the partner family are placed in a revolving fund to help ABWK serve others in need.
ABWK helps low-income homeowners who, due to age, disability, and/or family circumstances, struggle to maintain the exterior of their houses reclaim their homes with pride and dignity. The work is done by volunteers using donated materials whenever possible. The homeowner must demonstrate need, willingness to partner with HFHGB, and the ability to repay a no-interest loan. Payments made by the partner family are placed in a revolving fund to help ABWK serve others in need.
ABWK Qualifications
ABWK follows the same basic procedure used when selecting a family for a home build. ABWK partner families must demonstrate need for adequate housing, ability to pay back the loan, and willingness to partner with HFHGB.
Need
Need will be determined based on a combination of factors, including:
Ability to Pay
Willingness to partner
Need
Need will be determined based on a combination of factors, including:
- Physically inadequate or unsafe conditions
- Inability to obtain a conventional loan to pay for the work
- Circumstances preventing the homeowners from doing work themselves, such as disability, age, or illness
- Referrals from other housing programs or agencies
Ability to Pay
- Applicants should fall within 30%-60% of area median income
- There is no minimum credit score to qualify for ABWK projects, but an applicant's credit will be considered during the family selection process.
- Each project will be reviewed by the family selection committee. The family selection committee will base their recommendations on a family's ability to repay an ABWK loan on their current income-to-debt ration. The board of directors must give finial approval for each ABWK project.
Willingness to partner
- Partner families must contribute eight hours of sweat equity per twelve hours of project time.
- Partner families must contribute a minimum of eight hours of sweat equity.
- All present, physically capable household members must take an active role in work.
- Individuals physically unable to participate in ABWK project, may contribute in other ways that can be discussed during intake process.
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If you would like a HFHGB staff member to briefly review the work you would like done before filling out a full application, please fill out a pre-application form by clicking on the button below:
Use the link below to download an ABWK application:
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Applications can be dropped off or mailed to:
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bangor Attn: ABWK Program 83 Washington Street Bangor, ME 04401 For questions or inquires send email to: ABWK@habitatbangor.org |
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