Habitat for Humanity houses a 'godsend' for Long Islanders looking to get a home of their own

The housing crisis on Long Island is so bad that Mizanoor Rahman must share a cramped bedroom in his parents’ home with his wife and two young children even though he has a good job as an analyst with Nestle. They all sleep in a queen-size bed — there isn’t even enough room for a crib for their 2-year-old.

So it was a godsend when Rahman, a 35-year-old Suffolk County Community College graduate, was chosen from hundreds of applicants to obtain a house through Habitat for Humanity. The Christian nonprofit made famous in part by the late President Jimmy Carter building homes that working people can afford — as long they help build them too.

On Wednesday, Rahman, Habitat officials and more than a dozen volunteers held a "wall raising" event in Bellport where they erected the first wall of the small two-story, three-bedroom cape the family should be able to move into before the end of the year.

And just as importantly, be able to afford.

"This is so exciting. I can't wait to help you guys build this house and be the owner," said Rahman, a Mastic resident. "I thought I will never get it but thank you for choosing me. I really needed it."

He is not the only one on Long Island who really needs a house. Applications for Habitat homes have soared 600% since 2019, as housing costs have skyrocketed on Long Island after the COVID-19 pandemic, said Diane Manders, executive director of Habitat’s Long Island chapter.

The increase in applications is extraordinary, Manders said. "I think the need has become critical because since COVID the prices jumped so drastically, not only in homeownership but in rental prices, that people have to either leave Long Island or get into a program like ours."

Before the pandemic, Habitat would get 40 to 50 applications for each new house going up, she said. Now they receive 250 and must stop taking applications after two weeks. If they left the application period open, they would easily get 1,000, she said.

"The people now that apply ... you would have never thought with their financial ability they would be coming to Habitat," said Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico, who attended the event. "But the situation is such that the cost of housing is so expensive that you're seeing people applying" even though they have good jobs.

248 Habitat houses on LI

The house going up on Davidson Avenue is the 103rd one built by Habitat in Bellport, the community where the group has been most active, Manders said. Habitat has built 248 houses on Long Island since the group started here in 1987. It puts up between four to six houses a year.

Winners of the application process do not get the houses for free. They must take out a 30-year mortgage which should not account for more than 30% of their household income. If the 30% does not cover the full value of the house, Habitat along with government grants makes up the rest, Manders said. The total mortgage is based on market rates, with the value of the house determined by an independent appraiser. Habitat does this to help neighbors maintain the values of their homes, she said.

Recipients also must volunteer for 300 hours with Habitat, including 200 hours working on construction of a house — which could be their own or another Habitat house.

The other 100 hours include classes in financial counseling to ensure recipients know how to keep paying their mortgage, instruction on repairing their homes, community service and time working in Habitat’s ReStore, which sells new and gently used building supplies and home furnishings, in Ronkonkoma.

North Bellport, where Rahman’s house is going up, was "a community that needed help," Panico said. But through the work of Habitat as well as town and county governments, "you're seeing a revival in this area."

Rahman and his wife have been living in his parents’ house for several years, along with nine other relatives, he said. On top of that, his wife is pregnant with a third child. He has searched for a house to buy or rent, but said it was financially impossible. A three-bedroom house would probably mean a monthly mortgage of close to $4,000, he said.

He is hoping with the Habitat agreement his mortgage will come in around $2,500 or less. Habitat, he said, is "making it possible."