The City of Hamilton has a goal that any homebuilder would notice: 100 new houses for first-time homeowners by 2030. The city's Build Back the Block program is now through its first round, and applications for the next four Habitat for Humanity homes close Monday, Oct. 26, WVXU reported.
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Cincinnati, one of the city's partners, built seven of the program's first homes this year.
A homeowner who helped build her house
RayLyn Whitis-Gunn is one of the first people to go through the program. She is set to close on her first home next week, a house she helped build herself.
"I know how to put insulation in a wall now, and like, I helped with the walls in my house," she told WVXU.
That hands-on work is part of how Habitat keeps its costs down. A single applicant must complete 200 "sweat equity" hours, and two-applicant households must put in 300. Some of that time goes to home maintenance, lawn care, construction and financial literacy classes, but Whitis-Gunn said most of it is spent on the job site, either at your own future house or on another Habitat project. That approach lets the organization sell homes below a traditional price, according to WVXU.
Who qualifies
Applicants must show they are first-time homeowners, have citizenship or permanent residency, meet certain credit and income thresholds and have a need for housing.
"Like they pay too much in rent, or so much of their funds goes towards the rent, or they live in a house where it's not suitable for their family size," said Adriana Reyes, neighborhoods coordinator for the City of Hamilton.
Competition is stiff. In the first round, only two applicants from the city were selected out of hundreds from across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, WVXU reported. Reyes is especially encouraging Hamilton residents to apply.
The numbers behind the need
WVXU pointed to a fiscal year 2027 needs assessment from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. From 2019 to 2023, 24.4% of renters in Southwest Ohio were severely cost-burdened, meaning they spent at least half their income on housing.
Meanwhile, housing supply in the region has lagged. Southwest Ohio's housing stock grew just 9.6% from 2019 to 2024, compared with 32.1% statewide, according to the agency's figures as reported by WVXU.
That gap is what programs like Build Back the Block are trying to close. Reyes said the program aims to add housing inventory while building a stronger Jefferson neighborhood. In future years, the program will expand into the Riverview and Lindenwald neighborhoods, she said.
What's next
With seven homes built this year and four more Habitat homes in the next round, the program has a long way to go to reach 100 houses by 2030. WVXU's report did not lay out how many homes will be built each year, which other building partners are involved beyond Habitat, or how the work in Riverview and Lindenwald will be scheduled.
Those are questions contractors interested in the program can take to the city's neighborhoods office as Build Back the Block grows.
Why it matters for contractors
A city setting a target of 100 new owner-occupied homes in older neighborhoods is a signal worth noticing. Infill housing on city lots is often small-batch work, a few homes at a time on scattered sites, which can suit local builders and trade contractors better than big production jobs.
Habitat projects lean heavily on volunteer and sweat-equity labor, but homes like these still need work that volunteers don't typically do, such as licensed electrical, plumbing and HVAC. As the program expands to Riverview and Lindenwald, there may be room for other builders and partners alongside Habitat.
The regional numbers also tell a story. If Southwest Ohio's housing stock grew at less than a third of the statewide rate over five years, the demand for new homes in the region is real. Contractors who can build modest, affordable single-family homes on infill lots are well placed to be part of the answer, in Hamilton and beyond.