"What the poor need is not charity but capital, not caseworkers, but co-workers," was one of the earliest philosophies of a group of people who would inspire what would later become a non-profit organization called Habitat for Humanity.

In Concord, California, a "blitz" build of seven new homes were built in as many days to kick off Afforable Housing Week in the East Bay area last week. With the problem of affordability at its most critical levels in and around the San Francisco Bay area, these seven homes represent miracles in and of themselves to the lucky families who helped to build them and will occupy them.

Since its founding in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, Habitat for Humanity has built and rehabilitated more than 90,000 houses with families in need, addressing and tackling the housing for the poor head-on. The houses are built with no profit added and no interest charged. Building is financed by a revolving fund coming from the new homeowners' house payments, from donations, from no-interest loans provided by supporters, and from fund-raising activities.

The sheer number of individuals, including the partner families themselves, descending upon a work site to build a single house has Habitat for Humanity breaking its own records for home completion times on a regular basis. In 1998, a home in Tennessee was built in 4 hours, 39 minutes, 8 seconds, breaking the previous record by over an hour. At the time, Dan Stern, the local Tennessee Home Builder's Association House Chairman, was quoted as saying, "To see a house built in less than five hours is an amazing site that reflects the months of planning and hard work by more than 300 people to make his record possible."

One of the more interesting aspects of the homes built by Habitat for Humanity is the diversity of building methods they have used throughout the world. The homes are simple and modestly sized, using quality, locally available building materials. Trained staff supervise Habitat house construction and educate volunteers and partner families, with the houses reflecting the local climate and culture. The labor of all these vital entities make the Habitat house affordable for low-income families to purchase.

American and Canadian Habitat homes are generally built using wood-frame construction with Gypsum board interior walls, asphalt shingle roofing, and vinyl siding, but alternative and ecologically sound building materials such as adobe or straw bale construction has also been used. They must be no more than 1,050 square feet in size and may have up to three bedrooms, according to Habitat guidelines.

For those occupants of Habitat homes who have disabilities, Habitat for Humanity's commitment also extends to include accessible design feature concepts, such as zero-step entrances and wide passage doors and hallways.

In tropical locales, such as the Philippines, houses may be built up on stilts; in Africa fired clay bricks and cement or clay tile roofs are used, and in Latin America, homes are often built with concrete block or adobe walls and metal roofs. Local customs and cultural considerations are always taken into account when designing the homes, however. Meals are cooked outdoors in many African countries, so Habitiat plans outdoor kitchen areas there. In the Philippines, laundry and other tasks are traditionally performed on small outdoor utility porches, according to the organization's sources, so the house design is built to include this feature.

In 1984, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn began their personal involvement in Habitat, called the Jimmy Carter Work Project in New York City. Their visibility brought national and international exposure for Habitat, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of new affiliates for the organization. Today, Christian service-based Habitat has helped more than 450,000 people in 2,000 communities worldwide with faith, help, and hard work.

Published: June 8, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.