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Habitat for Humanity acquires land, builds first ‘starter home’ in Flagstaff

Eric Wolverton is the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity of Northern Arizona, standing in front of the nearly completed starter home as part of the Starter Home Program.
File photo
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KNAU
Eric Wolverton, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Northern Arizona, stands in front of a nearly completed starter home as part of the Starter Home Program.

The first of forty planned “starter homes” in Flagstaff has been completed by Habitat for Humanity of Northern Arizona. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports, the five-year project is meant to help address the city’s housing crisis.

The starter home mortgage is just under 1,000 dollars a month, and most of that money is put in an equity savings account that the resident receives when they sell the home back to Habitat for Humanity.

Eric Wolverton is the group’s executive director. He says it’s a unique model developed in Flagstaff and adopted as a nationwide pilot program. He says, "I don’t know of any other program set up where it’s self-sufficient, it’s not free tax money, it’s just hard-earned income being put into a savings program."

Habitat for Humanity received more than 600 applications for the first two starter homes.

The nonprofit’s website says the medium home price in Flagstaff has nearly doubled since 2019.

The project is being built on three acres donated by real estate developer Vintage Partners. Other collaborators include Coconino Community College’s construction program, and Block-Lite, a local company working on a sustainable process for making concrete blocks.

Melissa joined KNAU's team in 2015 to report on science, health, and the environment. Her work has appeared nationally on NPR and been featured on Science Friday. She grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where she fell in love with the ecology and geology of the Sonoran desert.