Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity is a Christian-based organization that builds houses world-wide with the goal of eliminating substandard housing and homelessness. Habitat builds simple, decent houses by working in partnership with people in need. Homeowners provide hundreds of hours of "sweat equity" building their or a neighbor's house and purchase their houses with no-profit, no-interest mortgages.

An important part of the partnership is helping families gain the skills they will need to be successful homeowners. Volunteer labor is used for most of the construction, and donated money and materials reduce the final cost of the home.

Asbury volunteers have helped our local Habitat affiliate, East Bay Habitat for Humanity, build houses in Oakland, Alameda, Fremont, Crockett, and a 22 home project in Livermore.  With the recent merger with the Mount Diablo affiliate, Habitat East Bay serves families in all of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Current projects are in Alameda and Oakland, and additional projects will be started in 2008 in Oakland and Bay Point. Habitat East Bay has been building about 20 homes per year and has a goal of building at least 40 homes per year in the near future.

Volunteers may sign up individually on the Habitat EB web site, or participate in the Asbury group workdays held multiple times during the year.