By Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International
Recently, I was given the honor of delivering the 12th annual John T. Dunlop Lecture at Harvard University. The lecture is sponsored by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. My purpose was to either persuade or remind the business leaders, students, academics, policy makers and others who were gathered that access to affordable housing is a vitally important issue that requires action from all sectors of society. I wanted them to join me in the belief that people of widely varying incomes can be successful homeowners, and I hoped we might leave as better advocates with a renewed sense of urgency for tackling difficult challenges.
My talk focused on three myths that I often hear about affordable housing:
Myth 1: Housing is important, but it is not at the top of the list. The reality is that affordable housing is central to education, health, employment and economic development.
Myth 2: Affordable housing is someone else’s problem. Housing at all economic levels has to be set in the context of community. If we are to provide affordable housing for all, then public, private and social sectors must work together.
Myth 3: Homeownership really isn’t for low-income people. We need the full spectrum of housing products, and people of many income levels can be successful homeowners. At Habitat, we believe that owning a house is a “power move” for many low-income families.
I shared examples of compassionate and ingenious responses concerning shelter for some of those affected by the 2004 tsunami in Asia; of a community in North Carolina that has been transformed from an unsightly center of crime and blight to a thriving and inviting place to live; and about the health, education and livelihood improvements that have resulted from our efforts to provide housing solutions in a village in Brazil.
I find that while almost everyone knows of Habitat, few realize the breadth and depth of our global work so I welcome these chances to remind people that a world of hope starts at home. I urge everyone to consider the effect that stable housing has in communities all around the world. Ponder the fact that poverty housing affects everyone — across demographics — and that it takes everyone to address the challenges of ensuring adequate shelter for all.
They are riding their bikes in a Pan American expedition from Alaska to Argentina.
What makes them even more amazing and special, is that they are riding for a cause.
They are riding to support their local Lake Agassiz Habitat for Humanity in Eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota.
Their goal, $60,000 to help build the house when they return home next summer.
“Each day is consumed with hard riding through some of the most spectacular places between Anchorage and Ushuaia, Argentina, our ultimate destination. And yet we ride with one eye looking homeward, to our local Lake Agassiz Habitat affiliate, which helps folks in need in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. We want to help build a house with Habitat when we return home next summer. We have met people from all over the world who have been inspired by what we are doing and are kind enough to donate.”
You can read more about and follow the Berg Brothers on their amazing journey here at Bound South.
Unconditional Love, Love Without Condition BY Sandy Stevenson
I love you as you are, as you seek to find your own special way to relate to the world.
I honour your choices to learn in the way you feel is right for you.
I know it is important that you are the person you want to be and not someone that I or others think you “should” be. I realise that I cannot know what is best for you, although perhaps sometimes I think I do.
I have not been where you have been, viewing life from the angle you have. I do not know what you have chosen to learn, how you have chosen to learn it, with whom or in what time period. I have not walked life looking through your eyes, so how can I know what you need.
I allow you to be in the world without a thought or word of judgement from me about the deeds you undertake. I see no error in the things you say and do. In this place where I am, I see that there are many ways to perceive and experience the different facets of our world. I allow without reservation the choices you make in each moment. I make no judgement of this, for if I would deny your right to your evolution, then I would deny that right for myself and all others.
To those who would choose a way I cannot walk, whilst I may not choose to add my power and my energy to this way, I will never deny you the gift of love that God has bestowed within me, for all creation. As I love you, so I shall be loved. As I sow, so shall I reap.
I allow you the Universal right of Free Will to walk your own path, creating steps or to sit awhile if that is what is right for you. I will make no judgement that these steps are large or small, nor light or heavy or that they lead up or down, for this is just my viewpoint. I may see you do nothing and judge it to be unworthy and yet it may be that you bring great healing as you stand blessed by the Light of God. I cannot always see the higher picture of Divine Order.
For it is the inalienable right of all life to choose their own evolution and with great Love I acknowledge your right to determine your future. In humility I bow to the realisation that the way I see as best for me does not have to mean it is also right for you. I know that you are led as I am, following the inner excitement to know your own path.
I know that the many races, religions, customs, nationalities and beliefs within our world bring us great richness and allow us the benefit and teachings of such diverseness. I know we each learn in our own unique way in order to bring that Love and Wisdom back to the whole. I know that if there were only one way to do something, there would need only be one person.
I will not only love you if you behave in a way I think you should, or believe in those things I believe in. I understand you are truly my brother and my sister, though you may have been born in a different place and believe in another God than I.
The love I feel is for all of God’s world. I know that every living thing is a part of God and I feel a Love deep within for every person, animal, tree and flower, every bird, river and ocean and for all the creatures in all the world.
I live my life in loving service, being the best me I can, becoming wiser in the perfection of Divine Truth, becoming happier in the joy of …
As August 3rd 2010 approaches marking the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we owe it to our children to make sure we do a better job of defending them in the wake of the next catastrophe.
Lakeland Habitatsupports this just cause. From pediatric care, nutrition and counseling to child-friendly shelters and temporary schools, defending kids in the coursework of emergencies requires that nonprofits, businesses, and federal, state and local governments work together.
Habitat for Humanity is working with Congress and the President to establish the National Commission on Kids and Disasters to be sure that children are never an afterthought in a catastrophe again. Read more and sign our petition today!Click Here…
Make a donation today and support Lakeland Habitat’s Housing efforts to help the less fortunate.
This year, Lakeland Habitat for Humanity will celebrate its 20th anniversary and complete its 100th house (and more). We are proud of what we have accomplished, but are constantly looking for ways to make our community stronger and healthier. At this time, we look to you to help us lay the groundwork for the success of future projects by participating in a brief survey based upon the information below.
To meet today’s and tomorrow’s challenges, Lakeland Habitat for Humanity is considering a major campaign to raise $12,000,000 over a five-year period. This investment from donors, volunteers, residents, corporations and foundations would restore historic neighborhoods, create a one-of-a-kind community, and celebrate 20 years of providing decent housing.
To transform the lives of more families, Lakeland Habitat for Humanity will:
Partner with Parker Street Ministries and Lakeland’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) program to renovate 100+ existing homes in the Parker Street Community through our “Brush with Kindness” program;
Create Laurel Brook Village, an affordable, mixed-income community of 36 homes on 22 acres of land; and
Develop energy efficient projects, including an energy-producing solar farm at Laurel Brook Village.
Role of Community Support
We hope that you will help us plan for the anticipated campaign by participating in a brief survey. I am confident that your guidance will help us lay the groundwork for the success of these innovative and important projects
The outpouring of volunteer help on this build site, coming from corporations, community residents and youth from all over the world, means that this family will soon leave behind an overcrowded apartment and a neighborhood that gives the children no safe place to play. They will start a new chapter of their lives, one that is full of opportunity and long years of happy memories.
”We’re building more than just houses,” says Ruthie Cambron, who works as volunteer coordinator for Anderson County Habitat for Humanity. “We’re building eternal habitation, and we’re fulfilling the teachings of Jesus Christ.”
Without the steady stream of volunteer help over the years, Habitat could not have hoped to reach any of the great milestones it has celebrated over the years: 100,000 homes, 150,000 homes and now 200,000 homes.
The volunteers on this 200,000th Habitat house are extraordinary only partly because of their help in making a such an important milestone possible. When Koffi, Tonya and their family move in, more than one million people around the world will be experiencing the joy and security of a simple, decent home. These volunteers are extraordinary for reasons that are becoming very personal to them–what they’ve meant to the homeowners with whom they are hammering, shingling, painting and sweating as they complete this house.
Find out how Habitat is looking to the future with its 200,001st house.
Will Howell is a crew leader on Habitat’s 200,000th hou
Will Howell of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, likes the excitement of blitz builds. They have kept him coming back to volunteer for the past three years, but this one has an extra bonus—the chance to work with Habitat’s milestone 200,000th family.
”I love being involved on the blitz day,” he says. “I like swinging a hammer.”
Will is a crew leader for this historic build, and he credits his crew and others on the site with getting the build off to such a great start on Saturday.
”They’re phenomenal,” he says. “We plowed through the interior walls and were up on the roof in no time!”
Will is one of many local volunteers who showed up ready to deepen the dent being put in poverty housing in Knoxville. His work is a celebration of the countless hours put in by volunteers over the years to bring Habitat to this milestone in its history. It is also part of the commitment to continue building until decent housing is a reality for everyone.
But the blessing for Will may be simpler than that. He’s in it for the effect all this sweat and effort is having on the homeowners.
Terri Adams spent Saturday helping raise the walls on the future home of the Kouassi-Harper family.
Terri Adams is working on the home of Koffi Kouassi and Tonya Harper in Knoxville, Tenn., helping complete Habitat for Humanity’s 200,000th house built worldwide.
”We’ve been up there in the sun, pounding away!” she says.
As vice president of risk management at Denark Construction, Adams is a volunteer who knows her way around a build site. She also knows the good things that can happen when people work together to improve their community.
Adams is one of several Denark employees working on the Kouassi-Harper house this week. The company has a history of supporting Knoxville Habitat for Humanity with both manpower and funds, and it was a part of the affiliate’s first historic-compatible build in Knoxville’s historic district.
Both as a construction professional and a resident of Knoxville, Adams is happy to be a part of what Knoxville Habitat is doing in her city.
”There’s satisfaction in knowing that you’re working virtually with strangers on a team project, helping someone else achieve a dream,” she says.
Adams is a member of the National Association of Women in Construction, a national organization committed to enhancing women’s careers in construction. Through scholarships and community projects, NAWC helps empower women all over the country to discover their place on build sites. Adams is excited about what this means for Habitat for Humanity sites, where a growing number of women are finding that their contribution can be great.
“Everybody can participate in some way. Everybody can serve out there,” Adams says. “With a little bit of training and confidence in yourself.”
Terri Adams spent Saturday helping raise the walls on the future home of the Kouassi-Harper family.
