Central Minnesota Nonprofit Continues Efforts Despite High Construction, Housing Prices

(KNSI) – With the price of lumber, other construction materials and home appliances increasing in 2021 amid heightened demand, building a new home or renovating one is now more expensive than usual. A local nonprofit is feeling the impact of those inflated construction costs.

“If you just look at a percent of expenses just for the construction cost of a home, it’s about 45 percent higher than it was a year ago, and so it’s really taken a large effect on us,” says Chad Johnson, executive director for Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity.

Right now, Johnson says CMHFH is building a new home in St. Cloud, will renovate one in St. Joseph starting next spring and has a completed home (built in part by Tech High School students) that is ready to be placed on a lot. The St. Cloud home is expected to be complete by the end of 2021, with a family of 10 moving in by February or March next year.

“They’re from Ethiopia and gave us such a beautiful story of the struggles they faced coming into this community,” Johnson said. “They’re very excited to move in. The whole family’s out volunteering all the time, helping with the build.”

As for the Tiger Build home, Johnson says the red-hot housing market is making finding land for that project harder.

“One of our biggest challenges is actually finding where we’re going to put these houses once we build them,” he said. “Ideally, we like to get lots and properties donated to us so we can cut the cost down. But, the demand for housing and lots and land is at an all-time high, and it’s really hard to get usable land that’s zoned for housing.

Johnson says the nonprofit has been able to absorb the heightened cost of construction so that future Habitat homeowners don’t incur that extra cost.

“We want to make sure that the Habitat owner is truly paying for affordable homeownership, and the community has done an amazing job of stepping up and they recognize that challenge that we were facing,” Johnson said.

In 2020, Johnson says the organization also had to deal with fewer charitable donations and fewer volunteers due to COVID-19.

“Without our strong volunteer base stepping in to help with the builds, it definitely slowed things down for us,” Johnson said. “But things are starting to balance out right now, and looking forward, I’m confident that we’ll get back to not just normal, but we’ll be above normal, above our threshold as we continue to set new goals.”

The organization is partnering with students at Sartell High School, Rocori High School and Tech for three home builds this fall.

“As we continue to ramp up our builds, my goal within the next three to five years is to start to have about 10 builds a year, because the demand is there,” Johnson said. “Right now, we currently have five families that are qualified for Habitat homes — we just need to build the house first.”

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