Sweat Equity: A Vital Component
By Millard Fuller

Habitat founder and president Millard Fuller congratulates a new homeowner at a house dedication in April in Tres Rios, Brazil.

In the ministry of Habitat for Humanity, the only thing given away is an opportunity. Prospective homeowners are selected based on need, ability to repay a mortgage and a willingness to be an active participant in providing adequate housing for the family. One of the central and basic requirements is “sweat equity.” The homeowners-to-be must work. They are required to put in several hundred hours of labor on their own house and the houses of other families in need.

This element of Habitat’s program is a large factor in its growing success. Work is honorable. It allows homeowner families to realize they are partners in the enterprise that is making it possible for them to have a home on terms they can afford (with a no-profit, no-interest mortgage). Their dignity is intact because they are not the recipients of “charity.” Also, they contribute to the building of their own house and to the building of houses for other families in need. The process also enhances self-esteem.

This blend of “helping oneself and helping others” is a dynamic that promotes continuing such conduct to the betterment of the whole community.

There is also a practical benefit to sweat equity. People learn new skills that serve them well in maintaining their new house. I remember chatting with a teen-ager whose family had just moved into a new Habitat house. When I asked what he liked most about his new Habitat house, in a flash, he shot back: “I helped build it.” In Africa, another homeowner developed great skill in laying block while completing the sweat-equity requirement on his house. Today, he operates a block-laying business.

Homeowners often talk to me about the building of their houses. What do they typically say? “The work was hard, but it was worth it.”

So, sweat equity is a vital component to this work. It enhances every aspect of the work and everyone involved in it—especially the homeowners.


Millard Fuller is the founder and president of Habitat for Humanity International.


Reprinted from Habitat World Magazine, August/September 2001.
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©2001 Habitat for Humanity International