Surrounded by his wife and seven children on the front porch steps, Prosper Hezumuryano jingled the keys to his new home above his head, beaming widely.

On Saturday, four families received keys to their new homes built by Habitat for Humanity in the Helensview subdivision at NE 64th Avenue and Killingsworth.

It's a subdivision that was facing an uncertain future just seven years ago when its developer went out of business during the recession, completing on only half of its 41 plotted homes.

But Cully is changing. Developers have returned. Land prices and rents are rising. And many long-time residents of Portland's most diverse neighborhood can no longer afford to stay, making the work of Habitat for Humanity that much more important.

"Cully is where low income families and people of color are most likely to be pushed out and displaced from because of the rising cost of housing," said Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East CEO Steve Messinetti. "Today, over half of our residents in Cully are paying more their half their income to rent, which doesn't leave enough for basic life necessities."

That's why Habitat has made Cully a special area of focus. Over the past 18 months, the nonprofit has purchased land in the neighborhood for another 25 homes. It hasn't been cheap – those purchases cost between 50 and 100 percent more than what the nonprofit paid for Helensview in the recession, and the sites need a lot more work.

"But it's kind of now or never," Messinetti said. "If we don't build there now, we're not going to be able to afford to build there soon."

As the price of land has more than doubled, so has the number of families seeking help from Habitat for Humanity. About 300 families applied to own one of 15 homes in the next Cully project.

"We're selecting the folks who are most ready, that have really proven that they've got good, steady jobs, their incomes are low but they've done everything else right," Messinetti said. They also give preference to families who have a household member with a disability, school-aged children, and who have previously qualified for the program, he said.

They're families like that of Prosper Hezumuryano and his wife Rosata Niyanzima, who moved to the U.S. in 2007 as refugees from the East African country of Burundi. They both work full-time, and the family lives in an apartment in New Columbia, a community of public and subsidized housing in North Portland.

"What is exciting to me is to be called a homeowner," Hezumuryano said through an interpreter. (He speaks English but is more comfortable with Swahili.) "Where we are living now, we are paying rent to someone else. We have no way of saying this is ours, the money is gone. Now, when we pay, we pay knowing that we are paying for our home."

About two years ago, he and his wife first applied to become homeowners themselves. Hezumuryano said there was "no way" he could have afforded to purchase a home on his own. "That wasn't even a dream."

Habitat considers affordable housing as housing that costs no more than 30 percent of a family's income. Traditionally, they've focused on building homes for families who earn 30 percent of area median income. Now, they plan to expand that to include families earning up to 60 percent of area median income because those residents, too, are being priced out.

In rough numbers, it cost Habitat about $200,000 to build each of the Helensview homes, and they're currently appraising for about $400,000.

Habitat for Humanity is able to build homes cheaply by avoiding general contractor and developer fees and relying partly on volunteer labor, donated supplies and corporate sponsors. Families put in at least 500 hours of "sweat equity" by working on the house they'll buy. What families pay varies based on what they can afford, but most homeowners will take on a mortgage for between $120,000 and $180,000.

Helensview consists of single-family homes but Messinetti said, "That's going to be pretty rare for us in the future because of the price of land." Instead, Habitat will focus on row houses and condos, building as densely as possible.

Habitat for Humanity's supporters like to say the nonprofit doesn't just build houses, it builds communities. Many of new homeowners' neighbors, who worked on their houses, attended Saturday's key ceremony. Hezumuryano's young children zipped around during an open house, showing off to their friends everything from the stove to the utility closet.

Children benefit most of all from stable, affordable housing. Messinetti said some 70 percent of families who have moved into Habitat homes in Portland reported their kids started getting better grades, and 92 percent of kids who grow up in Habitat homes in Oregon finish high school on time – a rate that's 17 percent higher than the state graduation rate.

During Saturday's ceremony, Messinetti described Habitat for Humanity's "theology of the hammer." It's the idea that we can disagree on a lot of things – politics, religion, our favorite sports team – but we can all agree on the benefits of affordable housing.

What we may not always agree on is how to get there, but Habitat for Humanity offers one model that works. It can be a piece to the puzzle.

-- Samantha Swindler

@editorswindler / 503-294-4031

sswindler@oregonian.com