Monday, October 5, 2009
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Let's stand up on World Habitat Day and let it be known that affordable, adequate housing should be a priority everywhere—in our communities, in our towns, in our country, in our world.
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| | | | | The United Nations has designated the first Monday each October as World Habitat Day. This year on Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C. and around the world, please join Habitat for Humanity in support of this global observance as we come together and declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable. According to the United Nations, more than 100 million people in the world today are homeless. Millions more face a severe housing problem living without adequate sanitation, with irregular or no electricity supply and without adequate security.
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| Worldwide, more than 2 million housing units per year are needed for the next 50 years
to solve the present worldwide housing crisis. With our global population expanding,
however, at the end of those 50 years, there would still be a need for another 1 billion
houses. (UN-HABITAT: 2005)Raising awareness and advocating for change are the first
steps toward transformingsystems that perpetuate the global plague of poverty housing.
World Habitat Day serves as an important reminder that everyone must unite to ensure that
everyone has a safe,decent place to call home. The U.N. further states that both
developed and developing countries, cities and towns are increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, resource depletion, food insecurity, population growth and economic instability.
Rapid rates of urbanization cause serious negative consequences - overcrowding,
poverty, slums with many poorly equipped to meet the service demands of ever growing
urban populations.With over half of the world’s population currently living in urban areas
the U.N. believes there is no doubt that the "urban agenda" will increasingly become a
priority for governments, local authorities and their non-governmental partners everywhere.
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| U.S. Housing Facts
| - About 95 million people, one third of the nation, have housing problems including a
- high-cost burden,
- overcrowding, poor quality shelter and homelessness.
- (National Low Income Housing Coalition: 2004)
- One in three American households spend more than 30 percent of income on housing,
- and one in seven
- spends more than 50 percent. (Joint Center for Housing Studies:
- 2006)
The number of low-income families that lack safe and affordable housing is related to the number of children that suffer from asthma, viral infections, anemia, stunted growth and other health problems. About 21,000 children have stunted growth attributable to the lack of stable housing; 10,000 children between the ages of 4 and 9 are hospitalized for asthma attacks each year because of cockroach infestation at home; and more than 180 children die each year in house fires attributable to faulty electrical heating and electrical equipment. (Sandel, et al: 1999)
| | | Global poverty facts
| By the year 2030, an additional 3 billion people, about 40 percent of the world’s population, will need access to housing. This translates into a demand for 96,150 new affordable units every day and 4,000 every hour. (UN-HABITAT: 2005)
- One out of every three city dwellers – nearly a billion people – lives in a slum. (Slum indicators include:
- lack of water, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, non-durable structures and insecure tenure.)
- (UN-HABITAT: 2006)
UN-Habitat has reported that because of poor living conditions, women living in slums are more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than their rural counterparts, and children in slums are more likely to die from water-borne and respiratory illness. (UN-HABITAT: 2006)
- Housing formation generates non-housing related expenditures that help drive the economy.
- (Kissick, et al: 2006)
- Investing in housing expands the local tax base. (Kissick, et al: 2006)
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| | | The theme for World Habitat Day 2009 is "Planning our Urban Future" | Celebrations of World Habitat Day in Washington, D.C. will be an excellent opportunity to foster global discussion and raise the profile of shelter and urban issues at the national and international level. Events in the United States and around the world include policy forums, award presentations, luncheons, dinners, house-building and exhibitions
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| | | Advocate - Educate - Donate | | | ADVOCATE for decent housing for all by submitting a photo of yourself holding a sign that says “It all starts at home”
deliver to the White House. Submit your photo by Friday, September 25, 2009.
| | |  Today, 1 billion people live in slums, and that number is growing
rapidly. The U.S. can be a leader in the fight to help reduce global
poverty and improve the lives of people living in slums. Urge your
support the Shelter, Land and Urban Assistance Act of 2009.
Tell Congress to pass the SLUM Assistance Act!
EDUCATE
your community with Habitat for Humanity’s World Habitat Day handbook to learn
more about the importance of secure tenure and neighborhood
revitalization. Get even more information about the issue of insecure
tenure by reading Habitat’s Shelter Report: building a
securefuture through effective land policies.
Brainstorm ways to get more people involved. Learn from the
successes of last year’s campaign, and come up with
brand-new
ways to celebrate and publicize the important work of
Habitat forHumanity.
Take a virtual tour of the Capotillo informal settlement in the Dominican
Republic and put yourself in the shoes of those who live in a broken community of violence, poverty and danger.
Link to Habitat for Humanity’s World Habitat Day 2009 resources page on your social media pages, personal
web site or blog to spread the word and raise awareness. | | | DONATE to be a part of making the world a better place and support Habitat’s efforts. Donate online today!
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| | So many people need your help
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ARMAVIR, ARMENIA (10/10/08)- Six year-old Diego Manasyan lives with his mother, Ellada, and his two sisters in
this deserted and crumbling Soviet-era building. ©Habitat for Humanity/Ezra Millstein | | |  | NAIROBI, KENYA (06/10/09) -- With an estimated population of more than one million people, Kibera is the largest
slum in all of Africa.
-- ©Habitat for Humanity/Steffan Hacker | | | | |  | MAAI MAHIU, KENYA 06/02/09 – Future Habitat homeowner Linet Gesare Maroko with her son, John. They are pictured in front of the makeshift tent she and her family, including children orphaned by her sister’s death, currently occupy. The tent is situated near the construction site of their future Habitat house (seen in background.) They have been living in a tent since their home in Narok, Kenya, was destroyed during the periods of violence in December 2007 and January 2008 that followed a disputed national election. She and her family were among the thousands forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict. Now, they are part of a self-help group of internally displaced people (IDP) that collectively purchased land in the area in which they now live. The group is partnering with Habitat Kenya to build houses on t he land. --- ©Habitat for Humanity/Steffan Hacker | | |  | MY THO, VIETNAM 12/14/08- MY THO, VIETNAM (12/14/08)-Houses crowd the banks of the Mekong River.
©Habitat for Humanity/Ezra Millstein | | |  | SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR 5/19/09- Children play in front of their family's shack, in the Las Victorias
squatter community on the outskirts of the capital. --© Habitat for Humanity/Ezra Millstein | | | | Supporting organizations for 2009 World Habitat Day include: | - Habitat for Humanity
- Rockefeller Foundation
- Woodrow Wilson Centre
- Global Housing Foundation
- CHF International
- American Planners Association
- International Housing Coalition
- the Urban Institute
- USAID, Cities Alliance
- the World Bank
- the US Department of Agriculture
- the Cooperative Housing Foundation
- the National Law Centre
- the Mortgage Bankers Association
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