-Margaret McDonnell

I just returned from Madagascar where I talked with a new homeowner and mother of four named Rebeka. Not too long ago she and her husband paid rent for a poorly maintained, tiny house that flooded during the rainy season, making sanitary conditions a nightmare. However, because the landlord refused to make improvements, the family did not want to invest in repairing the house for fear they would be evicted.

They now own a Habitat for Humanity house, and their mortgage is about the same as the previous rent. Secure tenure is one of the crucial issues for which Habitat for Humanity was advocating this week on World Habitat Day. It doesn’t make sense to build homes on land where families are not confident they can stay.

The day I met Rebeka, she was out clearing lots for future homeowners with more than 200 other people in the community. Those whose homes were already complete said they were grateful and that they wanted others to have the same chance they had. They wanted to make friends and show they were part of the community.

I also visited the Moramanga community, which is an urban slum upgrading project. Millions of Malagasy people live in poorly built, overcrowded houses (less than 20 square meters for an average household), without water and sanitation. This project developed by Habitat for Humanity of Madagascar, is aimed at giving people hope for a better life by constructing or renovating houses for 315 families, improving access to water and sanitation for 1,528 people, creating temporary jobs for 75 workers per year and training beneficiaries and local leaders on maintenance and management of the public infrastructures.

I was struck by the impact of simply building banked stone pathways to replace the narrow, muddy walkways. While this was not a traditional method for Habitat to serve families, I can see how the pathways have made a huge, positive impact on the village in the dry season. I can only imagine what the benefit will be when the rains come through.

Habitat for Humanity has provided shelter for more than 1.5 million people around the world since its founding in 1976. However, it is still unacceptable that 1.6 billion people around the world are living in substandard housing and that a billion people live in urban slums.

Habitat for Humanity believes that homeownership for low-income families is worth defending. Habitat homeowners make financial investments in their homes, which they also help build. Often improvements at one or two homes lead to positive changes for an entire area.

Go to our web site to learn more about our work in Madagascar and to discover ways that you can help families there and in other locations have a simple, decent place in which to live. Consider volunteering locally or going on a Global Village trip. Help us Build Louder by becoming an advocate for affordable housing around the world and helping to shape policies such as secure tenure.

-Jonathan T.M. Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International

Find out more by reading a new report called “The Shelter Report 2010: The Case for Low-income Homeowners.” This is a useful tool for those looking to understand the importance of owning a home. Full copies and an executive summary are available for download.

Last Friday, a group of ONE employees traded in their business casual clothes for real work clothes, volunteering our personal time to work with D.C. Habitat for Humanity in honor of World Habitat Day. We arrived bright and early at the construction site, not knowing what to expect. The Site Superintendent explained that D.C. Habitat for Humanity had purchased the land from the D.C. Government for $1 and was building a 53 home development for low-income families. Our focus was working on the six homes that are currently under construction. I thought we’d spend the day hammering but it turns out, there were many projects to work on. While my co-workers spent the day sanding, caulking and painting, I spent the day preparing the yards– removing rocks, breaking up the hard soil, shoveling topsoil, laying down sod –a lot more work than this apartment dweller is used to! To be honest, I was happy to be outside because it was such a beautiful day!

We were all impressed by the dedication of the Habitat for Humanity staff who led our groups. Most of them are AmeriCorps volunteers who work on these houses five days a week all year long despite heat, rain, cold, and snow! My group leader was actually on her second year of service to Habitat for Humanity.

At lunch time, Susan Corts Hill, the Director of Public Policy for Habitat for Humanity International, came out to tell us about their efforts to help families attain safe and affordable housing around the world. Globally, there are 1.6 billion people who suffer from some kind of shelter deprivation. It’s amazing that in some places, it may cost as little as $800 to build a house (the average cost to build a Habitat home in the United States is $60,000). She told us about their Global Village trips, which are a great opportunity for anyone interested in doing good, productive work while learning more about another culture. If you can’t get abroad, Habitat for Humanity has more than 1000 affiliates across the United States, so there are plenty of places to volunteer! Susan also explained to us that World Habitat Day is an annual event (the first Monday in October) that was created by the United Nations to unite people of goodwill and organizations around the cause of housing to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

Click here to learn more about World Habitat Day.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities with Habitat for Humanity (I highly recommend it!), click here.

-Ranna Lanagan, ONE Campaign

-Chris Scott

As UN-Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated, “There are many other billions of people suffering from lack of affordable housing– all the facilities which make our lives decent. We must work together and generate the political will to have a smooth implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and I will work very closely, and harder than before.”

Monday, October 6th is World Habitat Day 2008, which makes this an ideal time to address the global housing crisis and think about the more than 1.6 billion people who suffer from some sort of shelter deprivation. Habitat for Humanity is engaged and we need you to join us.

Without access to adequate shelter, clean water or sanitation, upwards of 10 million people die each year from preventable diseases. In some parts of the world, entire families face forced eviction from property or land they own. But clean, decent, stable housing for everyone is not beyond reach if, starting today, we get energized and get involved…

• Partner with Habitat by building, educating, or advocating on World Habitat Day.
• Plug into events in your area .
• Plan your own event.
• Learn about secure tenure.
• Read about the history of World Habitat Day and other events taking place around the world.
• Even though billions worldwide face tremendous odds when it comes to housing, our next President can do something to greatly improve those odds. Join Habitat for Humanity in urging Senators Obama and McCain to, as President, make the U.S. a world leader in the battle for better housing for all.
• Email us at worldhabitatday@habitat.org with your questions, comments or suggestions.

On October 6th 2008, raise your voice, along with Habitat, and take a stand for everyone in need of adequate housing in cities, towns and rural communities in the U.S. and around the world.

-Jeanette Stoltzfus, Habitat for Humanity International

The impressive turn-out led to a great joke by Susy Cheston, Senior Vice President for Policy at Opportunity International: After observing the standing -room-only crowd that had gathered in the back of the room, she remarked, “You should all receive a sticker that says, ‘I stood up for Women today!’”

Along with Susy Cheston were four other speakers, all with extensive knowledge and advice about empowering women to lift themselves, and their families, out of poverty. They were Nora O’Connell, Vice President for Global Development Policy at that Women’s Edge Coalition; Donne Cameron, Senior Director for International Programs for Habitat for Humanity; Shade Bembatoum-Young, Founder and Executive Director of African Sustainable Small Enterprise Export Development Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria; and S.K. Guha, Senior Program Specialist at UNIFEM.

The panelists discussed first-hand experiences, insight, and policy objectives relating to the GROWTH Act. The Act focuses U.S. international assistance on proven strategies to enable women to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. If passed, it will promote women’s ability to start and grow their own businesses, enhance land and property rights for women, improve women’s wages and working conditions, and provide a crucial link for women in poverty to the opportunities created by global trade.

In some instances, it is as simple as placing a second line on a government form, allowing a woman to enter into joint land ownership with her husband, and preventing her from losing her home if her husband dies. In other situations, empowering women consists of sharing knowledge of marketing and global trade, or providing funds to allow female farmers to receive crucial agricultural training

This piece of legislation is extremely important, and has the potential to improve the lives of women and their families by helping them lift themselves out of poverty! How great is that?!

-Elizabeth Gregg

It was a family-oriented event with free food, games and prizes for kids (all donated by local businesses). Local schools, and residents ran a food drive that brought in more than 2,000 items for those in need in central Florida.

As always, I am touched by the amount of people that pull together and for these type of outreach events. And a very special thank you to the devoted ONE volunteers who stayed through one of Florida’s typical afternoon torrential rainstorms… and afterwards, in soaked clothes, went right back to advocating for our cause and receiving many new sign-ups and volunteers for our cause!

Go ONEorlando!

-Joan Faulkner, ONE Regional Organizer

Mother /Daughter ONE Volunteers Renee and Jannine

Mother-Daughter ONE Team

Angela Griner from Heifer International

Today is also World Habitat Day.

Below, an excerpt from a speech that Habitat for Humanity’s CEO Jonathan Reckford gave to the United Nations Human Settlements Program.

“On this World Habitat Day 2007, we call on all individuals, organizations and governments to take a stand…to say YES, we CAN, as a caring global community, slam the door on poverty housing.

I am pleased that UN-HABITAT and Habitat for Humanity were the first signatories to a World Habitat Day 2007 proclamation that unites organizations around the cause of housing. If I may, I would like to close by voicing that proclamation.

For the first time in history, over half of humanity is living in cities and towns. Since time immemorial, cities have been centers of cultural and economic vitality. But today, one-third of the urban population—a staggering 1 billion people—lives in slums without adequate shelter, clean water or sanitation. If we factor in the condition of human settlements in rural areas worldwide, more than 1.6 billion people suffer some form of shelter deprivation.

As a direct result each year, up to 10 million people die from preventable diseases. Infants die. Children suffer at school. Parents cannot make ends meet. Families are robbed of the dignity every human being deserves. Yet too often their suffering goes unseen, their voices unheard.

On the occasion of World Habitat Day 2007, we declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable. Durable, affordable housing can and should be made a priority everywhere. We call upon the citizens of our global village to take a stand against substandard shelter in our communities, in our countries, and in our world. Together we can slam the door on poverty housing and open the door to a world in which everyone enjoys the stability, the security and the dignity of a decent, affordable home.”

Read the full speech below.

World Habitat Day
UN-HABITAT speech
Oct. 1, 2007
Jonathan T.M. Reckford
Chief Executive Officer
Habitat for Humanity International

“¿Por que esta aqui?”

Distinguished leaders, delegates and guests … good morning. It is an honor to be with you today.

On this World Habitat Day 2007, I awoke between clean sheets, in a comfortable bed, in a climate-controlled room. Clean water for drinking and bathing was a given; freshly laundered clothes were hanging in my closet; a hot breakfast was mine for the asking.
Your experience this morning probably was similar. But we are minority stakeholders in the global village.
In great contrast to our mornings, this World Habitat Day 2007 found:

-1.6 billion people around the globe waking up in unhealthy housing.
-More than 1 billion of them lacked access to safe drinking water.

When they started this new day…

-40 percent of people worldwide lacked access to even a simple pit latrine, and
-80 percent of the world’s people had no title to their land … or to the houses they’re living in.

And that’s those who have shelter. Today, on World Habitat Day 2007, some 100 million people—men, women and little children—are homeless right now.

Even more shameful at the start of the 21st Century is that preventable diseases–as a direct result of not having adequate shelter, safe water and sanitation—are killing up to 10 million people a year.

Habitat for Humanity International and its supporters around the world join the United Nations and UN-Habitat in believing that the grim reality these statistics depict is entirely unacceptable—and we join in committing ourselves to housing solutions that serve families far too often ignored in rapidly growing urban slums and impoverished rural areas of virtually every nation on earth.

Each time we choose not to see those families–by turning our heads or by detouring around squalor that might challenge our own lifestyles–we not only rob those families of hope. We rob entire settlements, entire communities, even entire countries, of the contributions members of those families might make if freed from the crushing burdens imposed by poverty housing.
That is the belief that drives the work of Habitat for Humanity—that when families have decent housing they can afford and where they feel secure, all other sorts of challenges become more manageable. Our mission is straightforward: to make simple, decent, self-help housing available to those otherwise unable to afford it. Studies demonstrate indisputably the benefits of homeownership: increased household wealth, improved physical and mental health, better cognitive achievement in children, and residents more active in their communities.

Throughout its 31- year history, Habitat for Humanity has built or renovated nearly 250,000 housing units, providing decent, affordable shelter for well over 1 million people. Today, each day, Habitat for Humanity is providing housing solutions for about 100 additional families around the globe. But we realize that is not nearly enough. We are committed to exponentially increasing that number, to working with like-minded partners to reach scale, and to aggressively advocating for policy change that enhances housing conditions throughout our nations and world.

In short, we see poverty housing as an issue that deserves to be taken personally. That is addressed in Habitat for Humanity’s ultimate goal statement, which challenges us to put shelter on the hearts and minds of people everywhere in such a powerful way that poverty housing and homelessness become socially, politically and religiously unacceptable in our nations and world. It is addressed in our daily work, in how we choose to spend our time. I can’t spend nearly as much time as I might like actually building homes, but there is tremendous meaning for me when I can.

“Por que esta acqui?” “Why are you here?”

The question came to me from a 15-year-old girl named Haylim as we worked alongside one another building a home that she and her mother would occupy in the village of Amecameca, outside Mexico City. They had been sharing a two-room house with another family of five and now were within weeks of having their own home. I had answered that question many times conceptually. But it was different trying to explain to a young girl why I was hundreds of miles from my home helping her to have a home.

After a few moments, I told Haylim that I was there for three reasons: First, because I believe that we are all one in God’s eyes. Second, because I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to live in a safe, decent, affordable home. And third, because every time I have the privilege of working alongside someone like her, it gives me a glimpse of the kind of communities we are called to create.

We do what we do because housing matters, because lives are at stake. We see doing all that we can to end poverty housing as a matter of mercy; as a matter of justice; as a matter of humility. For me, it is a matter of living out the challenge of the prophet Micah, as presented in Micah 6:6-8.

“He has showed you, O man, what is good.
“And what does the Lord require of you?
“To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

That is what compels me to focus on housing. And it is what so excites me about the U.N.’s theme for this World Habitat Day 2007: A safe city is a just city. We will not, and cannot, have a truly just world until all people have a safe and secure place to begin their lives, and to begin each day.

Throughout the world, Habitat for Humanity is working to remove barriers that prevent access to decent housing. In some regions, that means working with small savings groups of women determined to build a better future for their families; in some areas, it means working with those orphaned or made vulnerable by the AIDS epidemic; in others, it means slum upgrading; in some areas, it means opening building centers where families have access to affordable building supplies and to training that teaches them how to build or improve homes; in still others, it means opening doors to microfinance opportunities that will allow families to address their housing situations.

Here, in the United States, in addition to our house-building activities in thousands of communities, Habitat for Humanity is particularly focused right now in our support of, and raising additional support for, the GROWTH Act—the Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive Act. In fact, we are launching a new campaign today on World Habitat Day to rally backing for that important legislation. The GROWTH Act, which seeks to alter U.S. foreign assistance and trade programs to prioritize economic opportunities for women living in poverty worldwide, has four key components, among them enhancing women’s property rights.

The property rights component is at the core of our campaign. We know all too well the threats to women without property rights. They are at greater risk of homelessness and violence, have limited access to credit, and are dependent on their husbands for survival. Too often, we see the plight of a woman who has lived in the same house, in the same village, for most of her life. Then her husband dies—and his family tells her she has to find another home. That’s all too common in countries where women don’t have the legal right to own property—or where that right is routinely ignored.

This must change. Passage of the GROWTH Act would be a significant step.

Habitat for Humanity’s area offices, branch offices, national organizations and other affiliated organizations throughout the world examine their own local and national policies to determine how they can be enhanced or changed to provide increased access to affordable housing, and thus improve the lives of low-income people wherever they live. We will keep building and improving houses; we will continue pioneering new ways to make durable, affordable shelter available; we will persist in advocating on behalf of those in need of decent shelter; we will continue promoting transformational and sustainable community development; and we will continue working in partnership with organizations that share the belief that safe cities are just cities, that a safe world is a just world.

On this World Habitat Day 2007, we call on all individuals, organizations and governments to take a stand … to say YES, we CAN, as a caring global community, slam the door on poverty housing.
I am pleased that UN-HABITAT and Habitat for Humanity were the first signatories to a World Habitat Day 2007 proclamation that unites organizations around the cause of housing. If I may, I would like to close by voicing that proclamation.

For the first time in history, over half of humanity is living in cities and towns. Since time immemorial, cities have been centers of cultural and economic vitality. But today, one-third of the urban population—a staggering 1 billion people—lives in slums without adequate shelter, clean water or sanitation. If we
factor in the condition of human settlements in rural areas worldwide, more than 1.6 billion people suffer some form of shelter deprivation.

As a direct result each year, up to 10 million people die from preventable diseases. Infants die. Children suffer at school. Parents cannot make ends meet. Families are robbed of the dignity every human being deserves. Yet too often their suffering goes unseen, their voices unheard.

On the occasion of World Habitat Day 2007, we declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable. Durable, affordable housing can and should be made a priority everywhere. We call upon the citizens of our global village to take a stand against substandard shelter in our communities, in our countries, and in our world. Together we can slam the door on poverty housing and open the door to a world in which everyone enjoys the stability, the security and the dignity of a decent, affordable home.
Thank you for your kind attention this morning. May God bless us all in our work on behalf of families desperate for decent places to call home.