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The group, based in Gaithersburg, provides housing opportunities for low-income families.

A dozen three-bedroom townhouses are up for grabs at the $3.8 million Linganore Woods community. The houses will be sold at cost with no-interest mortgages.

Volunteers began constructing the 24-home community last summer. The first 12 homes have already been awarded and will be ready this spring. Work on the final 12 homes will begin this summer and should be completed by spring 2008, Newman said.

Gaithersburg resident Tadesse Keraga was selected to be a buyer of one of the first homes. In just a few more months, he and his wife and four children will move into their new home.

‘‘I appreciate those people who gave me this chance,” said Keraga, who emigrated from Ethiopia in 2003. ‘‘This was a dream for me, but the dream I think is going to be real.”

Finding an apartment he could afford was difficult for Keraga and his family, which includes four children ages 8 to 18, he said. Keraga earns $10 an hour as an animal caretaker at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.

He has spent countless volunteer hours cleaning and doing carpentry work at Linganore Woods, and he says he will continue that work long after he has fulfilled his volunteer requirement.

Habitat home applicants must complete a set number of ‘‘sweat equity,” or volunteer hours, based on family size, must live or work in Montgomery County for at least a year prior to application and must be a permanent, legal resident of the United States, Newman said.

Eligibility is also based on the applicant’s financial standings and current living conditions. The application deadline for the second phase of Linganore Woods is March 16. The selection process lasts more than six months, Newman said.

But Habitat’s long process is worth it.

‘‘It opens the door to many other people who are in the same situation, who think they can’t afford to buy a house because they obviously don’t make enough money or can’t afford to make a mortgage,” said Romulo Henriquez, another county resident who will move into Linganore Woods in the spring.

The Silver Spring resident, who emigrated from El Salvador 24 years ago, struggled for years to find an affordable home for his single-income family of five.

But the market is ‘‘outrageous,” and the family feared it might not ever move from its current apartment in the basement of a house, Henriquez said.

After completing his volunteer hours, he’s a believer.

‘‘We are truly working in partnership with low-income families that are in need of a hand up and need a chance for safe, simple, decent houses,” said Rosemary DiRita, Habitat’s director of volunteers and family services in the county.

Linganore Woods is regarded as the group’s most ambitious project to date in the county. The group has built or repaired 19 homes since its inception 25 years ago.

To apply

Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County is seeking homeownership applicants for 12 townhouses in Burtonsville. The deadline is March 16.

For more information, visit www.habitat-mc.org or call 301-990-0014.