200 Habitat for Humanity Volunteers Hope to Build 3 North County Homes by Friday

About 200 volunteers for San Diego Habitat for Humanity began Sunday building three homes, including one for a wounded veteran, that they hope to finish by Friday.

All three houses are being built from the ground up in the 500 block of North Elm Street in Escondido, on land donated by the city, according to the organization.

Officials with the nonprofit said each home is sponsored by one or more local business that tapped relationships in the building community to get donations of building products and labor. Sponsors participating in this week's so-called "builders blitz" are Shea Homes, Sempra Energy and Emerson Construction.

The families receiving the homes will repay a zero percent mortgage and help with the construction process before moving into their homes. "So they are low-income families, but they have a stable job, they're willing to put in 500 hours of sweat equity, and they probably come from an overcrowded situation," Lori Holt Pfeiler, executive director of San Diego Habitat for Humanity, told CBS8.

San Diego Habitat for Humanity has built 18 homes in five previous builders blitz events.

—City News Service