World Habitat for Humanity Day "Framing Walls with Partners"

HUD's India Drain and Tomyko Levi helping a Habitat for Humanity volunteer working together on the frame for a future Habitat for Humanity home.

The Atlanta Regional Office celebrated World Habitat Day by hosting a variety of events to acknowledge this important agenda. In a local celebration of World Habitat Day, Atlanta Habitat For Humanity staff members joined forces on Oct. 8 with volunteers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the City of Atlanta's Bureau of Housing. The Group worked together in Atlanta Habitat's warehouse on Memorial Drive to frame walls for homes for working families. "We applaud our governmental housing partners from HUD and the City, who will see first-hand how the grant programs they administer provide essential support for qualified homebuyer families," says Larrie Del Martin, executive director of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. "Our construction process begins in the warehouse, where certain components of a home are assembled, and these volunteers are diving into the heart of the process." Atlanta Habitat families are first-time homebuyers who meet financial qualifications, help build their own home, contribute sweat-equity hours to the organization, and complete at least 12 required education classes in courses ranging from budgeting and planning to home maintenance. Programs administered by HUD and the City include providing down-payment assistance to homebuyers and helping fund land acquisition.

HUD Staff volunteers posed for photos after a day of assembly is completed

"We have worked effectively with HUD and the City in a business relationship for 26 years," says Martin. "It will be so exciting to build together." Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, one of more than 1,700 U.S. affiliates of Habitat for Humanity International, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing affordable housing to Atlanta's working families. Since 1983, volunteers from corporations and from faith-based and civic organizations have worked in partnership with qualified homebuyers to construct affordable, green, quality homes in Atlanta, which are then purchased through no-interest mortgages. To date, Atlanta Habitat has built 1,040 homes in the City of Atlanta and the metropolitan area.

Learn more about Habitat for Humanity (http://www.habitat.org/local/).

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