What is Habitat for Humanity?
Habitat for Humanity is an international housing charity, run as a Christian ministry, but so ecumenical and widely appealing — it is associated with former President Jimmy Carter — it has a broad base of support beyond the Christian community. The organization is currently involved in Katrina relief.
The charity believes in the power of sweat. Volunteers build homes which are then given to prospective homeowners — who have completed financial responsibility classes and helped build the homes.Habitat for Humanity has built 200,000 homes since 1976, including 94 in Suffolk County. The average cost of an American Habitat for Humanity house is $60,000.
On March 16, 2006, the New York Daily News profiled a new Central Islip homeowner, a single mother of two who could never have afforded a house on her administrative assistant’s salary of $28,000 a year.
If you want to help, you can donate money or labor. (I donate my speaking honorariums.) I strongly suggest going on a Habitat for Humanity “build” — they are held on Saturdays and are really, really fun. You will be supervised, so even if you show up with just a pair of jeans and no handyman skills, you can build a house!