• Location: Lonsdale is bordered by I-640, I-275 and I-40. It is on the western edge of Knoxville north of Western Avenue and south of Mechanicsville.
• Population: Lonsdale is a community with a population of approximately 10,000 residents. Lonsdale Elementary School has approximately 250 students. Of 930 Lonsdale Homes residents, 78% are female head of household. All of the students at Lonsdale are on free and reduced lunch which means they are all below poverty level.
• Major Religions: Christianity is the major religion in Lonsdale with churches of all denominations.
• Background on Lonsdale Adoption: A decision was made in the fall of 2003 to adopt the community of Lonsdale. Adoption simply means we have come alongside this community to offer our support, our love, and our financial assistance. Our effort is to enable the residents, churches, ministries, and schools to succeed while we share the gospel through outreach and prayer. This has been done in part by working with SOAR Youth Ministries and Lonsdale School.

In 1992 there was a group of men from Cedar Springs who had a desire to build a Habitat House. John Lyons, long time CSPC member, went to Habitat to find out the details and how much it would cost to build a house. He found out that it would cost $9,000. The next day he went to see Mac Sells who was the Global Mission Director at that time . He told Mac that he had a group that wanted to build a Habitat House and that he needed $9,000. To John's surprise, Mac told him he had exactly $9,000 in the budget for a Habitat House. A few years earlier another CSPC member wanted to build a house and the money was approved but never used. The man had moved out of town and no one else had expressed a desire to head up a team. So, 1992 was the first year Cedar Springs built a Habitat House and they have been building them ever since.

Since 1985, Knoxville Habitat for Humanity has been creating affordable housing in Knox County. In the last 25 years they have partnered with many individuals, corporations, and faith groups to build nearly 400 simple, decent and affordable homes in our community.

Knoxville Habitat for Humanity homes are affordable because they are:

• Built by volunteers working with future homebuyers
• Sold at no profit
• Financed with a 25- to 30-year, 0% interest mortgage

Habitat families are very much invested in the process of buying their new home and they pay a mortgage like anyone with a traditional home loan.

In addition to their mortgage, each of the families must contribute 500 hours of sweat equity as a down payment before they can move in. Most of these sweat equity hours are spent in classes learning how to budget and how to become a responsible homeowner.

Habitat for Humanity International was founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller. Today, Habitat for Humanity is a true world leader in addressing the issues of poverty housing. Habitat builds houses in Africa, Middle East, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Caribbean, the United States and Canada.