Hurricane
Katrina Response
“One for One” Campaign
by Kristi Crafton, Executive Director
Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) has launched a program they call “Operation Home Delivery” in response to Hurricane Katrina. This is a three-phase response to help with rebuilding efforts in the impacted areas of the south. As most of you know from “The Today Show” coverage, a part of this response is the “house in a box project.” This is a demonstration project, a project that HFHI will continue to do in specific, selected cities with major corporate sponsorship. You will see other large builds going on soon, similar to “Habitat Plaza” in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza and the partnership with the Major Baseball League.
As concerned and caring Christians, we want to respond to the “house in a box” project here in the Quad-Cities and start it right now. This, however, is not the recommendation we are receiving from HFHI. Our affiliate has been informed that HFHI is currently searching for buildable land with clear title for the affiliates to build for and on. This must be accomplished before affiliates can know what size and style home to build. In addition, the state of Louisiana will be changing their building codes before the end of the year. Affiliates are being asked to keep local enthusiasm from waning, but to hold off on the actual building.
We at Humanity for Humanity – Quad Cities must also think about and plan for the needs of our own community and our selected partner families. We are determined to follow through with the commitment we have made to these families. We are planning to build six homes in 2006 and we do not believe we can ethically put these plans aside in order to assist our southern neighbors. So, what we will do?
The Board of Directors has approved the launching of a project called “One for One” in response to the hurricane relief effort in the gulf area. “One for One” is a campaign to raise $150,000 with every dollar divided between a Habitat for Humanity – Quad Cities local build and a hurricane build. This project honors the commitment of our affiliates to build six homes locally in 2006. It also calls for action to assist in the hurricane relief effort launched by HFHI. The first step in this process is to raise the funds to build these homes. Once the needed funds are raised, our affiliate will work in conjunction with HFHI to determine where, when and how we will build in the gulf area. We must again emphasize that although many of you are ready to travel south now and start rebuilding, we must first have the funds and then we must be sure the affected areas are ready for our assistance. It will likely be early spring before our building begins.
This is a great community, with many caring and compassionate individuals and businesses and we will need your support to make our “One for One” campaign a success. Donations may be sent to the “One for One” fund, Habitat for Humanity – Quad Cities, 2235 Grant Street, Bettendorf, IA 52722. We will keep you informed of our progress towards providing affordable housing to our community families and neighbors in need.