About Habitat for Humanity

A new Habitat house is built every 24 minutes somewhere in the world

Habitat for Humanity's vision is for a world where everyone has a simple decent place to live.

We are a global housing charity. Founded on Christian principles we aim to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.

Since we started in 1976, we have enabled over 300,000 homes to be built or renovated in over 90 countries, providing more than 1.5 million people with safe, decent, affordable shelter.

How Families are selected
A local committee is formed and selects families who:

Are living in poverty housing or are homeless
Have a regular income (even if it's only small) and are prepared to pay back the cost of building materials over time (at no profit). This money is then recycled to buy materials for another house. In effect, it is a form of microfinance
Are prepared to work for up to 500 hours on their new home ('sweat equity') – this increases pride of ownership and self esteem, and it also helps to build communities, as homepartners work on both their own homes and those of their neighbours.

Habitat for Humanity gives hope to so many people

House Design
Houses are designed by local professionals to specific criteria and must be:

Simple: modest in size to keep costs down, but large enough for the family's needs
Appropriate: simple enough for volunteers to build and the house designs reflect the local climate and culture
Decent: using quality building materials sourced locally wherever possible
Cost-effective: volunteers build, under professional supervision. No profit is made on the cost of materials

Go to Faces and Places for examples of house designs from around the world and stories of homepartners.

For more about Habitat for Humanity, visit our website at www.habitatforhumanity.org.uk.