Ahmadullah Safi, 40, was among the people celebrated Saturday morning in Oak Park for recently purchasing a home through a Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento program. Mathew Miranda mmiranda@sacbee.com
Peace of mind.
Those are the words Amadullah Safi used to describe what it meant to be a first-time homeowner in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood.
Safi, 40, no longer had to navigate an “insane” housing market. His three children each had their own room. And most importantly, the family finally had a home to call its own.
“A place where we can build memories,” Safi told more than 100 people Saturday morning in an event held by the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento.
The Safis were among the seven families celebrated by the nonprofit organization for recently purchasing their first home. Each family had worked 500 hours of “sweat equity” — labor on their home — alongside volunteers to qualify for a 30-year, 0% interest-equivalent mortgage.
All of the families, including Safi, worked full-time jobs while completing the sweat equity.
“That is a huge sacrifice to make for the opportunity to be able to have that stable foundation for your kids,” said Leah Miller, CEO and president of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento.
Saturday’s event also marked the organization’s 10th home built in the Oak Park neighborhood in the last year. Miller said these “starter” homes are crucial to helping address the state’s affordable housing crisis.
“That’s the entry way for first-time home buyers to get into the market of buying a home building and building that intergenerational wealth,” Miller said.
Miller referenced the seven families and their new homes as she called for more funding to CalHome, a state program that provides grants to local public agencies and nonprofits for first-time homebuyer assistance. The program has received money through the state budget over the last few years.
But in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget last month, no funding was allocated for CalHome. Habitat for Humanity California, a statewide coalition, asked for $280 million in a letter to Newsom last month.
Without this funding, Miller said Sacramento will be directly affected. Her organization planned to use some of that money to help build 70 more homes in the next three years.
“It would greatly slow down the pipeline of building affordable homeownership opportunities,” Miller said.
Those opportunities are particularly important to people like Phuong Ngo, a single mother of two boys who also participated in the Habitat for Humanity program.
She had struggled to find a reasonable mortgage in the current housing market and applied for the program in late 2023. Ngo will move into her Oak Park home next month.
Ngo was grateful for the opportunity, saying she learned skills to maintain the home and will now end the generational poverty in her family.
“I can pass down something to my kids and that’s everybody’s American Dream,” Ngo said.
Mathew Miranda The Sacramento Bee 916-321-1289
Mathew Miranda reports on City Hall for The Sacramento Bee. He is a proud son of Salvadoran immigrants and earned degrees from California State University, Chico and UC Berkeley.