Program Evaluation Proposal –

Habitat for Humanity of

Jacksonville
Alex Slupski
SYA4654
 Introduction
This proposal will outline an impact assessment evaluating Habit for Humanity of

Jacksonville’s (HabiJax) effectiveness and fulfillment of their stated goals. HabiJax is the

Jacksonville affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, a nationwide program that provides affordable

housing options for those in need. HabiJax focuses its efforts on Jacksonville’s urban core,

addressing the city’s housing crisis by constructing affordable homes with the help of

volunteers for those in need. Qualifying families must put in 300 hours of “sweat equity”

either on their own home or another families home. They then make a 1% down payment on

the home and are provide economical mortgage options.

There will be three main goals of this research: to optimize HabiJax’s processes and

procedures to create the best experience possible for participants, to analyze various

measurable metrics surrounding participants situations before and after involvement with

HabiJax, and to analyze if the organization is meeting the stated goals of their program.

The first goal, to optimize processes and procedures, will be accomplished through

both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Variables examined will include

participant’s experience with the application system, their satisfaction with the building

process, and their general feelings towards HabiJax’s operations and staff, among other

things. The second goal, to analyze metrics surrounding participants situations before and

after involvement with the organization, will also be accomplished through a mix of

qualitative and quantitative methods. The primary data gathering method will be conducting

interviews with HabiJax participants to gain firsthand knowledge of their living situation

before and after involvement with the program. Quantitative measurements will also be
conducted when feasible, with the goal of comparing measurable metrics (including financial

statistics and children’s school success) pre and post-involvement from HabiJax. The third

goal is to measure HabiJax’s ability to accomplish their stated goals. These objectives will be

created with input from HabiJax leaders before the research is conducted, and through the

synthesis of data collected while researching the goals stated above, the relative success of

the program will be determined with the goal of finding areas of strength and weakness

within the HabiJax Program.

 Literature Review
The affordable housing crisis is a well-documented issue across the United States.

Largely due to gentrification, housing prices are skyrocketing in urban areas, forcing long-time

residents out. Although on the extreme end of this issue, the National Alliance to End

Homelessness reports that on a given night, over 500,000 people in the United States are

experiencing homelessness. These issues will only become more prominent as the gap between

minimum wage and the cost of housing continues to increase. According to Out of Reach, part of

the National Low Income Housing Coalition, “a minimum-wage renter must work 75 hours a

week to afford a basic one-bedroom apartment and 92 hours a week to rent a two-bedroom

apartment.”

Unfortunately, Jacksonville and the state of Florida are not immune to these issues. The

National Alliance to End Homelessness says that there are over 31,000 people homeless on any

given night, 1,700 of which are in Jacksonville. According to the Florida Time-Union, to afford a

2-bedroom home in Jacksonville, a renter must earn $18.63 an hour, which is $10.53 more than

the Florida minimum wage. Governing.com states that in 2013, over 180,000 people made

minimum wage here in Florida.

The importance of a stable, safe, and clean home environment cannot be understated.

According to a paper analyzing two longitudinal, national surveys, single-family homes more

successfully “buffered the association between stressful events and distress among men.”

(Morrison, Poulin, and Holman 2018). They believe that home type “may be an important factor

in coping with stress, particularly among men, and especially for men who are more vasopressin

sensitive.” (Morrison et al. 2018). Homeownership also appears to have a positive effect on
school outcomes for children, according to a study conducted by the American Journal of

Economics and Sociology. The study found “positive significant effects of home environment,

neighborhood quality, and residential stability on the reading and math performance of children

between the ages of three and twelve.” (Mohanty and Raut, 2009). They also claim that

“Subsidized homeownership can lead to better child outcomes to the extent that it places a child

in a better home environment, in a more stable residence, and in a better neighborhood.”

(Mohanty et al. 2009).

The HabiJax recognizes the issues outlined above and attempts to address them through

their programs. The main facet of their outreach is to build homes, primarily in the urban core of

Jacksonville, and give qualifying homebuyers affordable loans, low down payments, and the

opportunity to work off part of their debt by either helping to construct their own home or

another HabiJax families. They are considered to be one of the most successful Habitat for

Humanity affiliates in the US and have provided homeownership opportunities and housing

services to over 2,300 families since 1988. They also claim to have created over $2.5 million in

total local income from construction in 2014 alone and support 14 full-time employees and 56

local full-time construction and related industry jobs. One of the goals of this evaluation will be

to analyze the nature of HabiJax’s impact after families are living in their new homes, as well as

to examine the processes the HabiJax organization uses to serve these families.

Unfortunately, the HabiJax organization is not without controversy. In 2016, a lawsuit

was filed by homeowners against HabiJax, alleging that the organization knowingly built 85

homes on a former landfill. They claim that these homes, constructed in 2000, have had

structural issues, including damaged foundations, and that the land they were built on is unsafe.

This lawsuit has yet to go to trial, but this outcome evaluation could highlight any issues
surrounding the organization and the homes they have built, allowing the organization to address

them before any harm is done.

 Data
All data for this outcome evaluation will be collected by the researcher through a mixture

of qualitative and quantitative methods. The population of interest is families or individuals who

have received survives from the HabiJax organization, which will consist largely of

homeowners. To accomplish this assessment’s first goal, to evaluate the processes and

procedures used by the HabiJax organization, data on participants experiences with different

steps of the process will need to be collected. Working with HabiJax, the researcher will examine

the steps the organization takes to work with these families, from the paperwork stages through

to the completion of the home. Metrics such as the perceived ease of use of the organizations

systems as well as satisfaction with aspects of the building will be examined. To accomplish the

evaluations second goal, to understand the effect of the organization on participants family’s

outcomes, data will be sensitive to collect. Ideal information will include metrics of students’

academic performance pre and post-intervention, as well as earnings and tax information from

the working members of the family, also pre and post-intervention.

 Methods
The methods for collection of data will vary based on which aspect of this evaluation

they are addressing. There is a high chance that much of the population will be considered at risk

or vulnerable, as a lot of these issues are what made them eligible for this program in the first

place. There is a possibility that portions of the population will be low income or come from a

non-educated background, and these vulnerabilities will need to be addressed.

The first goal of the evaluation, to analyze the processes and procedures used by the

HabiJax organization, will be primarily conducted through qualitative methods. Using contact

information provided by the HabiJax organization, families or individuals who have purchased a

home though the organization will be contacted and asked to participate in a one-on-one

interview. Through the budget provided by the organization, a monetary award will be offered to

members of the target population who agree to participate. Interviews will be conducted at the

participants to increase their comfort levels, and to allow their home they received to be in close

proximity as we conduct the interview. Questions will be created in conjunction with leaders at

the HabiJax organization and will include prompts asking about all stages of the processes they

went through to purchase from the home. Filing paperwork to show interest in purchasing a

home, working with HabiJax find a suitable home or location, determining loan and mortage

amounts, and HabiJax’s follow-up efforts after the home has been purchased will all be

examined.

To collect data for the second goal of this evaluation, quantitative methods will be

employed. The researcher will again use HabiJax’s database of past participants to contact. A

monetary incentive will again be offered. While keeping the vulnerabilities of the population in
mind, families will be asked to provide tax information from years prior to their purchase of a

HabiJax home, as well as equivalent data from years post-intervention. The goal is to measure

the impact of homeownership through the HabiJax program by comparing these data points.

Another data set that would be examined, provided that this is determined to be feasible, would

be the academic performance of children of participants in HabiJax’s program. Families would

be asked to provide school records prior to the intervention, and also to provide equivalent

records post-intervention. This data would then be compared to gauge the impact of HabiJax

homeownership on the academic performance of students, something that was shown in the

study conducted by the American Journal of Economics and Sociology.

 Conclusion
Anticipated findings for this impact evaluation include improved outcomes amongst

students whose parent have participated in the HabiJax program, potentially replicating data

found in prior studies. Another potential finding could include either successes or failures in the

more bureaucratic side of the organization, with the goal of recognizing areas which the process

is running well and smoothing out and optimizing areas in which it is not.

There are a few limitations to the potential impact of this impact evaluation. HabiJax is a

privately funded company, so budgets for this type of extra work might be small. Also, tby the

nature of the services they provide, the target populations being examined are likely vulnerable,

so those issues will need to be addressed through the course of the research.

The overarching goal of the study is to better the organization, whether that is by

streamlining their processes and procedures or by modifying their offerings to better suit the

long-term needs of their participants. As shown in the literature review, affordable housing is a

major issue in the US and in Jacksonville, and HabiJax is making major strides to address it.

With the help of this evaluation, they could increase the benefits of their services, further

addressing the issues they tackle every day.

 Works Cited
Anon. n.d. “About.” Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville Inc HabiJax. Retrieved April 15, 2020

(https://habijax.org/about/).

Anon. n.d. “Florida.” National Alliance to End Homelessness. Retrieved April 16, 2020

(https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-

homelessness-report/florida/).

Anon. n.d. “Homelessness in America.” National Alliance to End Homelessness. Retrieved April 15,

2020 (https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/).

Anon. n.d. “Out Of Reach.” National Low Income Housing Coalition. Retrieved April 15, 2020

(https://reports.nlihc.org/oor).

Bauerlein, David. 2017. “Protest at Courthouse Says Home Foundations Are Sinking Because

Neighborhood Built on Former Dump Site.” The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved April 16, 2020

(https://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2017-12-07/protest-courthouse-says-home-

foundations-are-sinking-because-neighborhood).

Mohanty, L. L., & Raut, L. K. (2009). Home Ownership and School Outcomes of Children:

Evidence from the PSID Child Development Supplement. American Journal of Economics &

Sociology, 68(2), 465–489. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2009.00635.x

Morrison, C. D., Poulin, M. J., & Holman, E. A. (2018). Gender, genes, and the stress-buffering

benefits of “home”: Evidence from two national U.S. studies. Journal of Environmental

Psychology, 60, 89.

Williamson, Amanda. 2017. “New Report Highlights Housing Affordability Issues in Jacksonville

and across the Country.” The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved April 15, 2020

(https://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2017-06-29/new-report-highlights-housing-

affordability-issues-jacksonville-and-across).