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Habitat Providence: A Primer |
Habitat Providence built its first house in 1987. Since that time the organization has increased its capacity to 5 houses per year, and we have provided more than 50 houses for low-income families in Providence. We keep the costs low by relying almost exclusively on volunteer labor: future Habitat homeowners must spend 300-500 hours of labor—Sweat Equity—on the construction of their new home, and the rest of our volunteers come from all walks of life: they are neighbors, students, professors, carpenters, doctors and electricians. Every Habitat Providence house is built with the help of hundreds of volunteers from all over New England, and in some cases, from all over the world. Not only is a Habitat Providence house affordable for a very low-income family, but it remains affordable for the life of the mortgage. In addition, Habitat Providence has stipulations in place that protect the organization from speculators.
But Habitat’s practice of building with volunteers is not just pragmatic: it also arises from the conviction that a community should be built by its citizens, and it serves as a means of raising the consciousness of the community about the crucial importance of affordable housing.
Without a safe, decent home, a family is less likely to thrive in life. Children are less likely to do well in school, domestic disputes are likely to increase, and the family is invariably a less stable unit.
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