Author: Jadeyn Sjaarda

We asked you to dream big with us last Christmas, and you answered the call raising over $86,000! Now your gift is hard at work building strong foundations for local students and families in our community. Keep reading to see what you’ve helped accomplish so far in 2025!

Neighborhood Revitalization

Our affordable repairs program has served 38 households so far this year. From house paintings to plumbing fixes, we help homeowners get the repairs they need at a price they can afford. We also work with our aging neighbors to help them stay in their homes as long as possible by installing safety modifications like grab bars and ramps.

In June, we held Rock the Block, our annual neighborhood revitalization event, in the Terrace Park neighborhood of Sioux Falls. Throughout the week, more than 80 volunteers came together to complete 11 projects. Check out our blog post to see pictures and hear more about the projects!

Homeownership

In May, we welcomed 10 new families into our Homeownership program for the 2025-26 build season! The group is hitting the ground running with many families already joining us on build sites and taking homebuyer education classes. Meet the families and see where they’ll be building.

We also had the joy of welcoming home Rebecca and her family into their new Granite Valley home. The day was a beautiful celebration of the hard work and dedication it took for her to purchase this home for her family! We’ll wrap up our 2024-25 build season in the next few months by dedicating six homes in our Millard Acres development.

Rehab Homes

Our pilot project with the City of Sioux Falls is expanding! We’ll now be rehabbing six rundown and abandoned houses. We’re excited to continue this important work of giving homes a new life, improving safety and beautifying neighborhoods as a whole.

You might remember our first rehab home from these progress photos – well, we’re now working on the inside of the home and will complete it and our second rehab home this year! Then, we’ll get to start the process all over again with four more homes.

School Partnerships

We partner with three area schools to give students hands-on construction experience by building Habitat homes. These partnerships allow students to gain skills for their future and learn the value of giving back to their community. In the 2024-25 school year, more than 200 students from Southeast Tech, CTE Academy and Harrisburg High School built with us!

The two high schools build homes on campus, so each summer they’re loaded on a truck and moved to Habitat lots. This May, we moved our CTE Academy home to Granite Valley, and our Harrisburg home will be on the move in the next few weeks. We look forward to continuing these partnerships in the upcoming school year!

Want to chat?

Our executive director would love to talk with you about what we’re doing and how you can be a part of it! You can reach Rocky at (605) 274-6280 or rocky@siouxfallshabitat.org.

We’re excited to announce that our Family Selection committee and Board of Directors approved and welcomed 10 applicants into the Homeownership program for the 2025-26 build season! These new homebuyer partners will be eligible to purchase their homes after they complete the required 300 hours of sweat equity and homebuyer education.

Future Millard Acres Neighbors

This summer we’ll begin building the last three twin homes in our Millard Acres development. These future homebuyers and their families will be the final additions to the 26-household neighborhood:

• Vitaliy & Yana
• Shagitu
• Reverend & Francoise
• Brian
• Mekdes
• Abrham & Selam

Future Granite Valley Neighbors

Students from CTE Academy and Harrisburg High School built two homes for us during the 2024-25 school year. These homes will be moved onto their foundations in the Granite Valley neighborhood this summer and completed for the following future homebuyers:

• Badria & Abdo
• Fantahun & Tikikil

Future Rehab Neighbors

Last year, we started a pilot project with the City of Sioux Falls to purchase rundown homes in need of rehabilitation. Through this partnership, we found and purchased two existing homes in Sioux Falls and are in the process of rehabbing them for these future homebuyers:

• Adde
• Abdulkadir & Rahima

If you see any of these families around town or on one of our build sites, please help us welcome them to the Habitat family and encourage them along their journey to homeownership!

On May 2, we welcomed Rebecca and her family into their new Granite Valley home built in partnership with CTE Academy! After Rebecca finished all her partnership requirements, she purchased the home with an affordable mortgage provided by Habitat. The home dedication was a beautiful celebration of Rebecca’s hard work and the stability she and her family now have through homeownership.

Meet Rebecca

Rebecca grew up in a farming family in South Sudan in a refugee camp. Living conditions in their mud home were difficult, and it was not a safe place. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2008 seeking a better place to live and a good community. Even though she works full-time at a production facility in Sioux Falls, homeownership was unaffordable for her on the open market. Rebecca applied for Habitat’s Homeownership program in October 2023. She and four of her children were sharing an apartment with crowding and expense issues, so they were excited when they were accepted into partnership with Habitat in April 2024. She said, “My children will have their own space and can pursue their dreams.”

About the Home

Rebecca’s new home was built by students at the CTE Academy during the 2023-24 school year. In July 2024 the home was moved onto Habitat’s foundation in the Granite Valley neighborhood in Sioux Falls where it was finished by Habitat’s construction team, volunteers and partner families.

Thank You

Thank you to the students and instructors at CTE Academy for their hard work building this home in the 2023-24 school year.

This home was made possible by the generosity of the Sheldon F Reese Foundation, MidAmerican Energy, Wells Fargo, Olson Oil, Blue Tide Car Wash, Xcel Energy, Sioux Valley Energy and the Midco Foundation. We would also like to thank our many other corporate and private donors for their support.

Thank you to Project Warm-Up for their donation of blankets.

Thank you to the 113 volunteers who devoted 838 hours to building this home alongside Rebecca and her family.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sioux Falls has now completed 196 homes, providing 314 adults & 742 children with secure, affordable housing.

Have you heard about Housing Education Resource Organization (HERO) certificates? They are awarded after completing homeownership education from HERO partner organizations like Lutheran Social Services, Sioux Empire Housing Partnership and Sioux Falls Thrive.

Through these classes, people learn how to evaluate their finances, understand the timeline and agents involved in the home closing process, and about lending options to make homeownership more affordable. It gives people confidence in the process and sets them up to become successful, knowledgeable homebuyers. Even if someone is not yet ready for homeownership, the class can help renters learn about options for securing decent rental housing and how to manage tenant-landlord issues.

A HERO certificate also benefits Habitat Homeownership program applicants when they are assessed for ability to pay and willingness to partner. Habitat uses a scoring system, and a recent HERO certificate can earn an applicant extra points!

In the past several years, we’ve seen a significant number of applications get denied in the initial financial screening stage of the application process. As many as 50% of each year’s applications have been denied for one or more of these reasons:

• Monthly debt burden is too high
• Unpaid balance of collections, judgments and liens is too high
• Income is too low
• Credit issues

By incentivizing HERO education classes, we hope that applicants will take steps ahead of the application process to make sure they meet Habitat’s financial requirements.

Our 2024 Impact Report is here, and we’re so excited to share what we’ve accomplished together! With the help of our amazing community of volunteers, donors and ReStore customers, we served 168 residents through our programs last year. Thank you for making a difference in 2024 and for partnering with us in this life-changing work! We can’t wait to see what 2025 brings.

View the 2024 Impact Report View the 2024 Impact Report

Want more detailed financial information? Curious about our impact from years past? Check out our Financial Reports page!

Today is the National Day of Mourning for President Carter, a man who spent his life serving others and championed the work of Habitat for Humanity around the world. He and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, have served as Habitat for Humanity’s most famous volunteers over the 40 years they helped to build affordable housing with our organization.

“We are deeply saddened by President Carter’s passing, and our prayers are with the rest of the Carter family,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. “President and Mrs. Carter began volunteering with Habitat for Humanity near their home in southwest Georgia, soon bringing worldwide attention to the need for decent and affordable housing. We are grateful for the incredible impact the Carters have had on Habitat and on the families who have benefited from their shining example. The Carters put Habitat for Humanity on the map, and their legacy will live on in every family we serve around the world.”

After leaving the White House, the Carters sought out meaningful ways to continue their commitment to social justice and basic human rights. They first volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in Americus, Georgia, near their home of Plains, in March 1984. Later that same year, the Carters joined Habitat volunteers in New York City’s Lower East Side to renovate an abandoned building in partnership with families in need of affordable housing. That trip marked Habitat for Humanity’s first Jimmy Carter Work Project (later renamed the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project). Each year since then until 2019, the Carters volunteered with Habitat to build or improve houses alongside homeowners in communities across the United States and around the world. President Carter also served as a member of the organization’s board of directors from 1984-1987.

“I think every human being has within himself or herself a desire to reach out to others and to share some of our blessings with those who are in need,” President Carter has said. “What’s opened up that avenue for me and my wife and hundreds and thousands of others is Habitat for Humanity. It makes it easy for us to reach out and work side by side with the homeowner who’s never had a decent house, perhaps. I haven’t been on a Habitat project that I wasn’t thrilled and inspired and wept.”

Over the last three decades, the Carter Work Project has touched lives around the world by inspiring more than 108,000 volunteers across the U.S. and in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,447 Habitat homes. Since its founding in 1976, Habitat has served more than 62 million people around the world.

In 2016, Habitat named President and Mrs. Carter as the inaugural Habitat Humanitarians for their extraordinary dedication to service in alignment with Habitat’s vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Habitat for Humanity will be celebrating President Carter’s life of service with a memory book. To share a tribute, visit habitat.org.

Learn more about President Carter’s work with Habitat and hear from our executive director in these news stories from Dakota News Now and KELOLAND.

On December 6, we welcomed Ali, Rumiya and their family into their new home built in partnership with Harrisburg High School! It was a fun afternoon enjoying delicious food and the community of their friends, family and Habitat supporters.

This home would not have been possible without the students and instructors at Harrisburg High School who helped build the home during the 2022-23 school year! We’re thankful for all the time and effort they put into this home and for joining us at the dedication to present the family with keys.

We would also like to thank our sponsors, Wells Fargo and the South Dakota Trust Association, along with all the other donors and volunteers who supported Ali, Rumiya and their family as they worked to build and purchase their home. Thank you to everyone who came out to the dedication to celebrate with their family and to Project Warm-Up for presenting each family member with a blanket.

Habitat staff also got to welcome home Hidray, Almaz and their family on December 19! This rehab home was sold to a Habitat homebuyer in 2017, and we purchased the home back in 2023. The home is all fixed up and ready for Hidray and Almaz’s family to make their own just in time for the holidays.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sioux Falls has now completed 195 homes, providing 312 adults and 739 children with secure, affordable housing.

Since 2007, State Farm has elevated Habitat youth initiatives across the country with their unwavering support. Thanks to a State Farm Youth Action Grant, we purchased materials to build two picnic tables and a regulation-size soccer goal for Terry Redlin Elementary!

High school students from Good News Church in Sioux Falls generously volunteered their time to build the tables and goal with us in October! They were a great group, taking ownership of their projects and working together to get the job done. It was amazing to see youth in the community stepping up to help the kids at Terry Redlin.

The next morning, we had the pleasure of dropping off the tables and goal at the school with Bill Thompson from State Farm. The kids were so excited about the new additions to their playground when they came outside for recess, so thank you to everyone who made that joy possible!

Want to partner with Habitat on a project like this?

Let’s chat about how we can improve our community together! Contact Rocky Welker, Habitat’s executive director, at 605-274-6280 or via email. We would love to make a difference with you!

This Giving Tuesday, we need your help to meet the match! An anonymous donor will generously match gifts made on December 3 up to $10,000. Help us reach this goal, so we can provide even more families in our community with affordable homeownership and home repair options. Double your difference this Giving Tuesday and support Habitat as we dream big for the future of affordable housing!

We Met the Match!

Thank you to everyone who doubled their difference with us this Giving Tuesday! Your incredible generosity helped us meet our $10,000 matching goal! We raised $13,650, and with the $10,000 matching gift, that’s $23,650 that will support families in our community working toward affordable homeownership and repairs!

Giving Tuesday may be over, but our work is far from done. Your donation any day of the year is greatly appreciated, so we can continue our work in Greater Sioux Falls. Make a difference with us today!

As we get closer to reaching our $10,000 matching goal, we’ll fill in bricks until the house is complete! Check back throughout Giving Tuesday to see our progress and donate to help us finish the house!

Giving Tuesday Gift

As an extra special thank you for helping us meet the match, we’ll be sending a FREE set of Habitat license plate stickers to everyone who gives $50 or more on Giving Tuesday! Donate to get yours!

On September 5 we recognized the first recipients of the John Homstad Volunteer of the Year award – Steve and Kaye Cook! Steve’s parents helped found the Greater Sioux Falls Habitat affiliate, and Steve and Kaye have been volunteering with us ever since. From building homes to deconstructing them, they’ve done it all (in matching t-shirts). We appreciate their kindness, selflessness and dedication to get the job done! Thank you, Steve and Kaye, for your many years of service to our mission.

This award was created in memory of John Homstad, a longtime volunteer Master’s Builder who passed away from cancer last year. It will be awarded yearly to individuals, groups and organizations that go above and beyond, advocate for Habitat and demonstrate leadership as John did during his time with us. We are honored to give this award on his behalf.

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