On behalf of Habitat LA and all of the families we serve, we wish you the happiest of holidays and many blessings for the year to come. We are so grateful to all of you who have supported our work this year! Because of you, we have been able to build 14 new affordable homes in partnership with Los Angeles area families and provide more than 100 other low-income families with critically needed repairs.
We invite you to continue to follow our progress, get involved in any way you can, and help us spread the word about this work to your friends and families.
From our home to yours, best wishes for a healthy, safe holiday season!
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Holiday Basket and COVID-19 Emergency Relief Distribution |
Thanks to the generous donations of so many, Habitat LA was able to bring some much-needed holiday cheer to 170 families with holiday baskets and COVID-19 relief gift cards. We appreciate all of you who have worked hard to make this happen! Below are just a couple photos of our families when we visited them last week!
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“Thank you so much for the thoughtful and generous holiday gift basket! We plan to watch the Elf movie and eat the goodies this weekend. We loved our wonderful experience building and purchasing our home through Habitat LA. And we love our partner family neighbors! We pray that you all have a restful holiday season and a New Year full of good things!”

– The Wu Family
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Thrivent December 2020 Video Update
From Budlong Avenue
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We miss building with you! Check out the latest video about the incredible progress happening at our Budlong site in Los Angeles. The homes are already weathered in and getting ready for siding. Also included in the video is the touching moment when we let the Aguilar and KC family that they had been selected as Habitat LA partner families.
Each year, Thrivent contributes fifty percent of the funding for each of their sponsored homes and encourages faith partners across greater Los Angeles to band together to raise the remainder. The generous support of Thrivent, faith partners and caring individuals like you will help bring strength, stability and independence to two families in need of a decent place to live.
Check out our progress and don’t forget to click Subscribe to receive notifications on our latest video updates! To learn more about Thrivent Builds program, upcoming Thrivent Financial Webinars or virtual volunteer opportunities, visit here.
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We are excited to announce that construction has officially started at our Millennium Homes project located on 14th, Pine and Pacific in Long Beach, which is part of our Washington Neighborhood Revitalization initiative. This development will be referred to as “Millennium Homes” in honor of us beginning construction on our 1,000th homes. Check out this fun video highlighting the installation of the dust screen on this site. We will be sharing frequent updates so that you can follow along with us as the site progresses!
This site will also be home to several special memorial builds, including a home being built in honor of our former Board member, Randy Farwell, a home being built in honor of longtime volunteer Greg Raasch, and our Founder’s home, being supported and built in honor of our affiliate founders and first Board members.
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Highlights from our 2020 Virtual Veterans Build |
On December 7, 2020, Habitat LA celebrated its first virtual Veterans Build. This free event, which was generously sponsored by City National Bank, provided participants with a fun “behind the scene” visit to a current Habitat for Heroes home preservation project in South Los Angeles. Participants met the Alline family as well as our staff and several volunteers who also happen to be veterans, all of whom worked together to provide interior and exterior home repairs to improve the safety and security of the Alline’s home.
The second half of this virtual event brought together a local panel of experts working on behalf of the Los Angeles area veterans community. Moderated by Habitat LA’s own Dr. Dinesa Thomas-Whitman, Director of Outreach, Advocacy, and Policy, the panel provided an informative discussion on the challenges veterans and military families face regarding affordable housing, employment and the transition to civilian life.
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Habitat celebrates 35 million individuals having a safe, decent place to live |
The importance of home is at the core of our work and Habitat recently released a couple videos that celebrate this, including a Safe at Home video that highlights families from around the world sharing about the importance of home to their families, especially during this pandemic and another that celebrates the 35 million+ individuals that now have a safe, decent place to live through Habitat’s work. You might recognize a few familiar faces in the 35 million+ video, including one of our partner families and one of our team members.
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Habitat LA, Sustainable Homes of the Future and the Pursuit to Build Consciously |
Habitat LA implements several Green Building practices into the homes we build, and because of that effort our affiliate was recently honored with the Sustainability award at this year’s Building Industry Association of Los Angeles & Ventura Counties Installation and Awards Ceremony. This award is given to honorees demonstrating how to drastically reduce their carbon-footprint by developing a Net Zero Community. Habitat LA homes have been built to our green building standards since 2007, including solar system functionality, which increase the affordability of our homes. |
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Sylvia, right, our partner homeowner, baking with her family in the warmth of their Habitat LA home over the holidays. |
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This month, as you spend time in the kitchen baking with loved ones, we would like to share a recipe for a treasured holiday classic by another Habitat LA Partner Homeowner, Sylvia B. |
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Ingredients

1 cup melted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup powdered sugar
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar and vanilla with a fork. Slowly add in the flour until the mixture becomes paste-like. Then add the chopped pecans, mixing them well into the dough.
- Shape dough by rounded teaspoons into balls. Place balls closely together on a cookie sheet. These cookies do not expand like other cookies.
- Bake for 18-25 minutes. Cool for 40 minutes. Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl and roll the cooled cookies in the powdered sugar.
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Los Angeles Rams and Lowe’s Join Habitat LA to Provide Repairs to a Wildfire-Impacted Community in Seminole Springs |
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On December 1, the Los Angeles Rams teamed up with Lowe’s and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles for a home renovation project in Seminole Springs, a mobile home park that was severely impacted by wildfires. Socially distant volunteers worked together to repair the home of the community’s property manager, which was the last to be repaired since it suffered devastating damage in the Woolsey fire that struck the Santa Monica Mountains and eastern Ventura County region. Volunteers provided new kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures, washer and dryer, and a new lawnmower for the park. In addition, the volunteers assembled a new shed for a senior who recently moved back into their replaced home. A special thanks to Lowe’s Newbury Park for donating $3,500 in product, including a Honda lawnmower and a beautiful 12’ Christmas tree for the community center.
This project is part of Habitat LA’s Disaster Recovery Program, which was launched in 2018, initially to serve households affected by the Creek and Woolsey fires, and has since expanded to serve families throughout our service area.
Since January 2020, our committed staff, with the help of many supporters and volunteers, have helped us provide more than 50 households with home repair services. Habitat LA has recently received funding to support repairs for households affected by the Bobcat and Lake fires, which happened in 2020, where about 200 homes were lost or damaged.
To learn more about our disaster recovery efforts, click here.
To support our disaster relief efforts, click here.
And to meet some of the families your donations have helped support, click here.
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Additional Ways to Support |
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We want you to share your Habitat LA experience, expertise or excitement.
Share your story by submitting a blog on any Habitat LA program, uplifting community stories, information on affordable housing in Greater Los Angeles, or your experience with Habitat LA. We will feature your content with our Habitat LA community. Selected blogs will be featured on our website, social media and Habitat Happenings newsletter. To get started, learn more about our Habitat LA blog guidelines here!
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Reduce Taxes, Increase Impact! |
The IRA charitable rollover provides several benefits. It allows individuals 72 and older to transfer up to $100,000 from an IRA directly to a nonprofit this year. You pay no taxes on the transfer and your gift counts dollar-for-dollar to support our important work of building communities, homes and hope.
To get started, download our brochure here.
If you have further questions about how an IRA rollover gift can benefit you, please contact our Individual Giving Team @ melfstrand@habitatla.org or
310-502-1867.
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Support Habitat LA while Grocery Shopping! |
Support Habitat LA while grocery shopping at Ralphs or Food 4 Less by registering or updating your Ralphs card! Just select Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (Non-profit Number WG155) as your charity of choice when you register your new Ralphs card online or update your existing Ralphs card online.
All Ralphs and Food 4 Less shoppers may sign up for the free Ralphs Rewards Card and register their card with the Ralphs Community Contributions Program. It’s easy! Every time you shop for groceries and scan your card at Ralphs or Food 4 Less, Habitat LA automatically earns up to 5% of all eligible purchases per enrolled card. Sign up now!
For instructions to register or update your card, click here!
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OUR MISSION
Seeking to put God's love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.
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OUR VISION
A world where everyone has a decent place to live.
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