Habitat for Humanity will soon open the application process for families interested in partnering with the group to build a home to live in.

Applications to help build and buy a home from Habitat will be available starting Monday.

Rod Goodman, Habitat’s executive director, said the organization will start work on five connected town homes next spring and is looking for five families to sell the homes to.

“A lot of people think we give houses away but we don’t, so families will pay an affordable mortgage which basically means they won’t spend any more than 30 percent of their gross monthly income in housing costs,” he said.

The mortgages will have 0 percent interest and last 25 years, with the monthly payments expected to be about $500, roughly $200 of which would be for insurance and taxes, Goodman said.

Those monthly payments will be used to fund other building projects, he said.

“We take those monthly payments they make and we put those back to helping build more homes for future families,” he said.

Beginning Monday, applications can be downloaded at hfhbgwc.org or picked up at Habitat for Humanity’s Bowling Green office and ReStore, and must be turned in by Sept. 1.

A family selection committee determines which families get chosen, based on their ability to pay, willingness to partner and need for housing, Goodman said.

In addition to the 0 percent interest payments, families are also expected to work for 350 hours on the home’s construction and on other Habitat construction projects, he said.

Elise Konwiczka, Habitat’s community outreach and resource coordinator, said only family members and friends older than 15 are allowed to work on Habitat projects.

Families can make the hours stack up faster by having friends help out, she said.

According to a post on the group’s Facebook page, Habitat will host home ownership orientation meetings at First Christian Church at 1106 State St. for applicants and potential applicants at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Thursday and at 2 p.m. Aug. 20.

“It’s just one more way for them to understand the application and to have answered any questions they may have,” Konwiczka said.

The home ownership orientation meetings are encouraged but not mandatory, she said.

This is the second time Habitat has built a group of town homes as opposed to individual homes, Goodman said.

“They help us as far as some energy efficiency savings but they also help us to produce the most high-density affordable housing so that we can put (in) more units to serve more families,” he said.

The town homes will be built on Regis O’Connor Boulevard in the Durbin Estates subdivision, with each unit expected to have three to four bedrooms, though they could potentially have as many as five, Goodman said.

Families applying to build and buy a home through Habitat can expect to know if they’ve been chosen by mid-October, he said.

Construction of the town homes is expected to begin in the spring and conclude by next October, he said.