HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

University of California - Riverside

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What is Habitat?

UCR's Habitat for Humanity is a campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), which is a nonprofit housing organization seeking to eliminate substandard housing.  We also work side-by-side with Habitat Riverside and San Bernardino affiliates, which work at the community level.

How it works?

Habitat houses are:

sold to low-income people at no profit (due to no interest charged on the mortgage)

built by volunteers and the homeowners themselves under trained supervision

supported financially by individuals, corporations, and faith groups

Moreover, all of the mortgage payments go into the Fund for Humanity to build more houses.

Habitat is not a giveaway program.  In addition to a down payment and the monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labor - sweat equity - into building their house and the houses of others.

Why join Habitat?

...because you'll be a part of a revolutionary international organization, even governmental leaders have joined!!!!

Habitat has made tremendous contributions to communities all over the world.  Ever since it was founded by Millard Fuller in 1976, more than 120,000 houses have been built in 79 countries, including 30,000 houses in America.

Former President Jimmy Carter is an active supporter of Habitat.  In fact, in 1984, he formed the annual Jimmy Carter Work Project in affiliation with Habitat.

Between 1994 and 1998, 200 houses were built in the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, Los Angeles, and Hungary.

In 1999, 10,000 volunteers from 32 nations, alongside with President Carter, Rosalyn Carter, and former Philippines Presidents, Joseph Estrada and Fidel Ramos, built nearly 300 houses in Philippines.

In 2000, nearly 200 houses were built by volunteers, including Susan Sarandon, in New York, Georgia, and Florida.

This year, JCWP is at Asan, Korea.  President Carter, the Korean President Kim Dae-jung, 28 heads of government of 26 nations, and 9000 Habitat volunteers are building 136 houses.

In 2002, JCWP will be in Africa on June, planning to build 1000 houses in dozens of locations.  

Through Habitat's program World Leaders Build, President and Mrs. Bush worked up a sweat on August 8, 2001, helping build a house in Waco, Texas.  They were joined by the federal housing secretary Mel Martinez and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Bush said, "Neighbors helping neighbors.  No president should ever take that value for granted.  That's why Laura and I are here."

There always has been a controversy concerning federal welfare, which is stigmatized as "hand-me-downs" because people could easily depend on it.  It is said that it could even worsen their socioeconomic status.  Habitat has provided an alternative solution to decrease the socioeconomic gap by endorsing the idea of a mutual aid society, in which community members support each other socially and financially.  It allowed welfare to be taken into the hands of the community, instead of the federal government.

If you would like more information about HFHI/JCWP or read testimonies of Habitat homeowners, visit http://www.habitat.org/ or http://www.habitatriverside.org for the Riverside chapter of Habitat.

 

 

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Modified 09/30/2001 11:00 AM