One of the common misconceptions of Atlanta Habitat is that we give away homes for free.

We don’t.

Homeowners who qualify for our program must take a series of financial literacy and homeownership courses, collect 250 volunteer hours within the organization, and when they are finished building their home, they purchase them at a discount with 0% interest.

“It’s not a free house, but it’s true affordable housing,” said Catherine Dixon, Atlanta Habitat Advisory Board member and Co-Chair of the Atlanta Women’s Build.

When Catherine first began volunteering, she recalls several aspects of the organization’s model that really spoke to her. As the daughter of schoolteachers, she was eager to soak in all the new skills she picked on build sites. And as a finance professional, she was impressed with business of Atlanta Habitat.

The old school definition of affordable housing is thrown out. Our 3- and 4-bedroom homes nestled in established neighborhood or new planned subdivisions reimagine what is traditionally thought of in the affordable housing space.

Catherine became a regular volunteer through her church and found more than she signed up for.

“Yet another reason to volunteer at Habitat, you never know who you might meet,” Catherine said with a smile. “I met my husband going to Habitat build…Then we had three kids in rapid fire succession, and I couldn’t really devote a lot of time to Habitat.”

Despite her busy life, Catherine missed volunteering with Atlanta Habitat, and helped out where she could by handling the meals for a few build days throughout the year.

As her children got older and Catherine had more time to devote, she was introduced to the Atlanta Women’s Build by one of the founders, Susan Boyd.

“The more we talked, the more I felt like it would be a good time for me to join the board, contribute to help with the Women’s build. The women’s build is just the coolest thing,” Catherine exclaimed. “I get so excited about it because this was started by the Simpson family many, many years ago to really help a female homeowner in Atlanta and her family to start to build wealth and have a safe place where her family could thrive.”

The Atlanta Women’s Build have built 20 homes for single mothers in its 20 years and has already began planning for their next family.