Volunteer's gift to Habitat is a home at the holidays

In a season that heralds generosity, and at an agency that sees a lot of it, Larry Hossfeld stands out this year.

The retired engineer and longtime volunteer carpenter for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity just donated a house in Richfield to the organization, a house whose overhaul has been his personal project for more than a year.

It's the biggest donation of the year for Twin Cities Habitat, and the first move-in-ready house to come its way in more than 15 years, said Habitat CEO Susan Haigh.

In an odd twist, Habitat owes this gift partly to the down housing market that is causing so much hurt: After Hossfeld tried briefly but unsuccessfully to sell this Richfield cottage, it occurred to him to give it to his favorite charity.

"I came to think, well, why not?" Hossfeld said.

"Miracles happen small and big here, and this certainly is one of the big ones," Haigh said.

"And to have it happen around Christmas is extra special."

The standard drill

That family will follow the standard Habitat procedure that keeps the organization's foreclosure rate low -- in the Twin Cities, it's under 2 percent of about 650 mortgages, Haigh said. The more typical, national rate on lower-income, higher-risk mortgages has run around 10 percent over the years, according to the North Carolina-based Center for Responsible Lending.

Twin Cities Habitat's families average about $30,000 a year in income, Haigh said. They have to complete a course of home-ownership lessons -- including family budgets, home repair and being a good neighbor. They also have to put 300 to 400 hours of "sweat equity" into their homes, before receiving one of about 50 0-percent-interest Habitat mortgages each year. The process usually takes about 10 months.

The only difference with Hossfeld's house is that this family will put in its hours on another Habitat project instead of its own.

Hossfeld's house is a good Habitat fit, Haigh said. It's on a bus line, in a good school district, and within walking distance of a grocery store. It has three bedrooms, about 1,400 square feet, and a high-efficiency furnace and appliances.

An old friend of Habitat

Hossfeld, 55, has been donating his hammer-and-nails skills to Habitat since 1990. He learned carpentry in the basement workshop of his late father, Ralph, a professor of forest products at the University of Minnesota. He and his mother, Mildred, still live in his boyhood home in Minnetonka.

"When I was growing up I didn't do much volunteering, so later I felt I was kinda missing out on opportunities to meet people," he said. "Habitat was a good fit for me because I work building things. That's my thing."

Hossfeld has been averaging at least two days a week on Habitat crews for years. Retired last fall from engineering work on industrial-size boilers, he donated five days a week through last summer -- "their busy building season," he noted.

He's often the one to train the volunteers who stream through every project, Haigh said.

Hossfeld paid $175,000 for the house and always intended to put enough improvements into it that he would make no money on the sale.

"I just wanted it to be for someone who would enjoy it," he said.

Priced first at $250,000 then $220,000, it found no buyers over three months. Then, about three weeks ago, he decided to give the whole thing away.

"For me, it's a feeling of satisfaction," Hossfeld said. "There's a lot of generosity going around this time of year. I want to contribute what I can."