World We Dare to Imagine- Post 3

 

One Home at a Time

Over the summer, I built a shelter with Habitat for Humanity, an organization where volunteers come to help build affordable homes. Over one billion people struggle with inadequate housing, and of those, millions of people face homelessness. While the shelter I helped build would only house one family of those struggling for a basic necessity, I truly felt like I had made a difference. 

Homelessness is a systematic problem that is multifaceted, but in many cases connects back to economics. To tackle the epidemic doesn’t happen overnight, and looking at it from the lens of one person, it seems impossible. But, organizations, like Habitat for Humanity, and homeless shelters take a step in the right direction and reveal that even the aid of one person can help another person's life. 

Ever since I finished building the shelter, I couldn’t help but wonder how that family was doing. While housing is an essential first step of addressing homelessness, it is not a solution by itself. Social services are an essential factor as well. One Home at a Time is the organization that bridges the two to ensure sustainable housing. One Home at a Time will work with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Mercy Housing, and Builders for Hope, as well as homeless shelters to provide education and services. This will include maintaining a house, financial literacy, and job support for example. Local volunteers will help assist with the social services aspect. One Home at a Time also hopes to create environmentally sustainable solutions as well. Through funding from private and public companies, One Home at a Time will provide energy efficient and green materials for the home developers to use, as a large part of global CO2 emissions comes from buildings. One Home at a Time emphasizes the importance of sustainability education through training programs for green workforce development careers in the fields of energy and materials management that pay living wages. 

Anima Mundi Development Partners should support One Home at a Time to help tackle the global epidemic of both homelessness and climate change. One Home at a Time will need help to be able to scale up and serve multiple communities and will need funding to be able to acquire environmentally sustainable materials to build homes.