Neither the frostiest of temperatures nor the heaviest of rainfalls were able to dampen the spirits of about 100 Habitat for Humanity volunteers who over the weekend began renovating an empty Mott Haven building that lacks a roof, windows, and floor sections.

The five-story edifice, located at 703 E. 156th St. and once owned by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, was sold to the Habitat for Humanity for $1, a spokeswoman for the organization, Beverly Cheuvront, said. Completion of the project is expected by the end of December, after which the building will contain eight homes. The organization also has built more than 150 other homes in the city.

“If you don’t own a home in New York, it’s almost impossible to buy one,” the executive director of the New York City branch of Habitat for Humanity, Roland Lewis, said, speaking of the need for more subsidized housing in the city.

Families who wish to live in the new Mott Haven homes first must meet the organization’s income requirements, as well as commit to volunteer 300 hours per adult family member. The latter requisite provides a unique opportunity for recipients to work alongside those who donate their time and skills for purely recreational reasons.

For some of the Habitat for Humanity volunteers, the desire for an affordable home is an emotion they can empathize with. A junior at Hunter College, Charles Fostrom, 27, said that for him, the only affordable address in Manhattan at one point was a Central Park bench.

Despite braving below-freezing temperatures and encountering hurled beer bottles and fighting off an attempted rape, he said the worst part of his three-year struggle to find a home was the way people looked at him. He said a woman who happened upon him sleeping on a bench remarked, “Oh, you’re ruining the park.”

Now he and the organization’s 10,000 other volunteers can look forward to working on future projects, including constructing 41 residences from scratch along Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.