SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — More than two dozen volunteers showed up in South Sacramento Tuesday ready to work up a sweat and build homes for those in need.

Miranda Gersham was hard at work laying the foundation of a place she will call home. 

“I have done a lot of DIY at my grandmother’s house helping her fix things around the house like the sink, faucets, things like that, but never to this magnitude,” Gersham told FOX40.

Her house will be one of 13 homes in development for a project called Women Build. It includes 550 female volunteers all working to create homes for low-income women. 

“Doing everything from painting to framing walls, raising walls, a lot of things in between,” said Laine Himmelmann, with Habitat for Humanity.

Himmelmann said the affordable housing crisis is a major issue in Sacramento.

“We’ve seen rent rising in the double-digit percentages for the last four years,” she explained.

With more than 7,000 families applying for 12 Habitat for Humanity homes, the Gershams were one of those families facing that very dilemma. 

“Prices out here in California are insane,” Gersham said. “Right now, we’re in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment, and I’m paying over $2,000 a month. Yeah, I work in California but I can’t afford to live in California.”

But with a new home, Gersham said she will be able to brace for a new chapter.

“We all have fun talking about the different houses and what it is we are going to do together,” she said.