Habitat for Humanity’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative is a multifaceted strategic response to the profound challenges that communities throughout the United States are facing due to the subprime mortgage crisis, the historic increase in home foreclosures and the fallout from the worldwide economic recession. Yet many of the methods included in the NRI umbrella are not new; rather, this is a new way to look at the work many affiliates have been doing for quite some time. While Habitat’s traditional methods of new construction remain strong, increasingly, affiliates across the country are expanding the way they work to attract more volunteers and sponsors and to ultimately serve more families. The holistic approach of the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative enables affiliates to have a broader impact on a neighborhood community level.

The NRI includes such diverse housing solutions as A Brush with Kindness, a program focusing on assisting low-income homeowners with exterior repairs, to weatherization programs to help homeowners make their houses more energy efficient. For more information about the NRI, contact Habitat for Humanity International at (800) 422-4828.