Habitat for Humanity, Catholic House Build is sponsored by a coalition of Catholic communities in Washtenaw County & in 2004 in collaboration with the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living. Our Mission:     What Motivates Catholics to build Habitat Houses?

Providing social service & knowing the social teaching of the Church is an essential part of Catholic faith.   Far too many Catholics are not familiar with the basic content of Catholic social teaching.   We need to share the social mission and message of our Church to be true to the demands of the Gospel.

The following themes are motives "why" Catholics respond to those in need.  Notice that they do not tell us exactly "how" to respond.

• Life and dignity of the human person - All people are holy, made in the image of God.
• Call to family, community and participation - People are both holy and social; when one suffers, we all suffer.
• Rights and responsibilities - People have a basic right to life, food, shelter, health care, education and work.
• Option for the poor and vulnerable - The "Jesus" test of a community (of society) is how it treats its neediest members.
• Dignity of work and the rights of workers - Money, work and business exist to serve people, not the other way around.
• Solidarity - We want justice for all people.
• Care for God's creation - The environment is God's sacred creation.

In keeping with one Christian idea of helping those less fortunate by eliminating substandard housing and homelessness; we, a coalition of Catholic parishes and agencies in Washtenaw County, Michigan (Catholic House), have sponsored and built/renovated six Habitat for Humanity homes in the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor area over the last seven years. In this local area, the wages of low-income families have not kept pace with rising rents and mortgage requirements, while at the same time many low-cost housing units have either been condemned and abandoned or demolished. For many future Habitat homeowners, their current living situation is challenging; cramped living quarters and neighborhood violence make for a difficult home life. To that end, we (Habitat For Humanity-Catholic House) build simple, decent, affordable houses for those who lack adequate shelter.
 

Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization, working in partnership with low-income families, to build affordable homes, which are then sold with 20-year interest-free mortgages. Habitat is not a give-away program. Each family makes a $500 down payment, and each adult family member contributes 300 hours of their own labor (sweat equity hours) to Habitat before buying its home. The families are partners with Habitat, and pay a down payment and about $450 monthly for mortgage principal, taxes, and insurance.

As a sponsor, our Catholic House group provides three of the four ingredients essential to a successful Habitat build. First, we enhance the project's visibility and give it an identity by lending our name (Catholic House) to the effort. Second, we must raise $55,000 for building materials and other construction costs, such as sub contractors. And third, we provide 4,000-8,000 volunteer hours to construct the house. Habitat for Humanity provides the fourth element: responsibility and professional managing to obtain a building site, select a family, provide a building design, establish a construction schedule, procure building materials, provide professional skilled workers in critical areas, write a mortgage and closing documents to sell the house to the partner family; and promote the project to the broader community.

Our Catholic House group is now in the planning process of sponsoring our 2004 Catholic Habitat House, scheduled to start in May, 2004. We are committed to building one house a year to eliminate homelessness in our community "one house at a time". See our web site at: http://stfrancisa2.com/habitat