Everyone who filed into a meeting room Monday night at Plymouth Congregational Church wanted one thing: a decent home.

There’s Bret Olsen, who’s tired of the spongy floor and moldy walls inside the trailer he shares with his wife and three children. He’s physically disabled; she works full-time as a manager at McDonald’s.

“At $8 an hour, you don’t qualify for much,” he said.

There’s Linda Davis-Miller, who lives with her boyfriend and four teenage children. She earns $10.55 per hour but pays $750 in rent, and she doesn’t think she could come up with a down payment to buy a home.

“I want to be stable,” she said. “Me and my family want to be stable.”

Davis-Miller, Olsen and about 70 other people gathered last night to find out how they could build a home through Lawrence’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity. The international agency helps people buy a home with an interest-free mortgage and other benefits if they meet certain criteria and agree to chip in 225 hours of labor.

It’s only once every year or so that the agency opens its application process. It happened Monday, and the mood in the room was hopeful.

“It’s nice to see that we’re looking at future Habitat partners,” said Larry Maxey, head of the agency’s family-selection committee. “I hope to see all of you in the near future building homes.”

Then came the sobering news: It’s not easy to meet the criteria. Applicants must have a sufficient income to make mortgage payments but still must demonstrate some immediate need, such as a crime-filled neighborhood or a closet full of mold.

Bret Olsen plays with his son Blane, 5, after school outside their trailer at Gaslight Village, 1900 W. 31st St. Olsen would like to move his family to a house but finds it difficult to find affordable housing in Lawrence. Monday night Olsen attended a Lawrence Habitat for Humanity meeting for prospective homeowners. At far left is Olsen's son Bryce, 4.

They must be unable to qualify for a normal bank loan. And they must have a satisfactory credit history.

Everyone who qualifies out of this group will, at some point, be able to build a home through Habitat. But sometimes it can take more than a year for the right site to materialize, especially, organizers pointed out, with affordable land becoming harder to find in Lawrence.

“If there’s six families that qualify out of this, that would be enough (to keep the agency building) for a year or so,” chapter president Jerry Feese said.

Olsen, who is physically disabled from an on-the-job injury at a chain restaurant, thinks his family has a decent chance of making the cut. In addition to his family’s limited income, he’s had problems in the past with people vandalizing his car after he reported illegal activity at Gaslight Village, 1900 W. 31st St.

“I want out really, really bad,” he said.

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He estimated his family’s odds at 50-50 for being accepted.

Davis-Miller also was hopeful. She said she had been making good money the past three years at her job, and her boyfriend also found a job recently with a tree service.

“The only thing I’m concerned with is my past credit, and that’s the thing that’s been nipping me,” she said.

Applications are due March 19 at Habitat’s local office, 412 E. Ninth St. After that, the waiting begins.

“People have said that the best job in Habitat is calling a family and telling them they qualified,” Feese said.