HFH 101: Intro to Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity at N.C. State has just had a very long and busy week with Shack-a-Thon, as every student who passed by the Brickyard could tell. We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us reach our goal of $30,000. We have realized that we have not completely finished our job, which is to inform the NCSU community exactly what Habitat for Humanity really does. 

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization whose mission statement is “Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.” Habitat for Humanity does this by providing zero-interest mortgages for affordable housing to very deserving families who have worked to earn these homes. In order to even become considered for a house, a family must submit an application, have good credit and must have an income that is 120-150 percent of the poverty line. 

Then, the family must put in 250 sweat equity hours, meaning that they must help construct someone else’s house and their own for a certain amount of hours which varies depending on where they live. This creates a sustainable system of volunteering because the community essentially helps construct each other’s houses. Depending on where you live, families may also be required to take certain classes such as how to budget, how to balance a checkbook, what to do when something goes wrong, etc. so that they can take great care of their new home. In this way, Habitat for Humanity is a “hand up, not a hand out.”

Two of H4H’s missions are “Support sustainable and transformational development” and “advocate for affordable housing.” Although our work does provide relief for individual families, our mission and goal is to transform how the system operates. Studies have shown that children of Habitat for Humanity homeowners are 25 percent more likely to graduate from high school; 116 percent more likely to graduate from college; 20 percent less likely to become teenage mothers; 59 percent more likely to own a home within 10 years of moving out; and saves taxpayers an estimated $34,000 in public expenditures (cost of juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancy, etc.) that would have been spent had these children remained in rented housing. These benefits will increase as Habitat builds more homes.

There was a family our organization has worked with that was working on their own home because they moved apartments approximately every six months, and were currently living in an apartment where they had to prop the couch against the door at night to prevent theft. By allowing this family to have a stable home, we are giving those children a better chance to succeed in school, helping to break the cycle of poverty and allowing the children to escape the cycle. They can also find more information at www.habitatwake.org

During Shack-a-Thon, we raised awareness about H4H by giving people “habi-facts” and an idea of what it may be like to live in or near poverty. During Shack-a-Thon, we gain new volunteers, earn a lot of money for deserving families and we have fun. That sounds like a win-win-win situation to me. If anyone would like to learn more about H4H, then I encourage them to sign up for our list-serve at http://clubs.ncsu.edu/habitat/listserv.htmlThey can also find more information at www.habitatwake.org. 

Kevin Quick, junior in psychology and sociology

Vice-President of H4H at NCSU.