About Flower City Habitat for Humanity

Since 1984, Flower City Habitat for Humanity (FCHH) has been making home ownership a dream come true for low-income, inner-city families in the Rochester area. For the majority of these homeowners, Habitat provides the only opportunity for them to own a home, as many of them earn less than $39,900 per year, for a family of four.

Habitat provides these home-owners with a “hand up”, not a hand-out, by providing them with a zero-interest, 20- or 25-year mortgage. Families pay approximately $450 per month, which includes property taxes and insurance. Owners must also contribute 450 hours of sweat equity, building the homes of others, as well as their own, working alongside hundreds of other Habitat construction volunteers.

Building Neighborhoods

Habitat improves lives not only by providing better housing conditions, but by working to transform neighborhoods that have long been plagued by decay, poverty and crime.

For example, take Cuba Place, a tiny street on Rochester's northeast side: By the early 1990s, Cuba Place had earned the reputation as an open-air drug market. Rundown, vacant houses and lots were plentiful. Police raids and other efforts failed to solve the problem.

Today, Cuba Place is remarkably different. Eleven new homes line the street, homes that Flower City Habitat helped to build. There are new lights, curbs and sidewalks. Best of all, 11 new homeowners (and 25 children) form a solid core of caring, committed neighbors, who have helped transform Cuba Place into a very different place.