Thanks to a collaborative effort through Habitat for Humanity International’s 21st Century Challenge, towns and cities are recognizing the possibility of a shack-free community.

21st Century Challenge Aims to Erase Substandard Housing
by Shawn Reeves

The process of eliminating substandard housing is becoming reality for some communities across the United States, including the locations for this year's Jimmy Carter Work Project: Anniston, Ala., LaGrange, Ga., and Valdosta, Ga.

Along with seven other communities throughout the country, each of these cities has become a certified community in Habitat for Humanity International's 21st Century Challenge. The challenge? To eliminate substandard housing locally and to do so by a specified date.

Designed to link Habitat affiliates with a collaborative effort to eliminate substandard housing, the idea behind the 21st Century Challenge began in 1992 in Sumter County, Ga., home of Habitat for Humanity International. After building more than 700 houses in the area, the Sumter County Initiative--a community coalition of housing partners--declared victory over substandard housing three years ago. Since then, the local Habitat affiliate has worked to maintain the progress and begun building in surrounding counties, expanding the vision of shack-free communities to a larger part of southwest Georgia.

Today, HFHI works with communities across the United States to promote the effort elsewhere, demonstrating that the elimination of substandard housing is a real possibility when backed by community groups who share a concern for families living in deplorable conditions.

Habitat affiliates most often spearhead the Challenge, and HFHI supports them in their efforts to:

• Organize a properly constituted local initiative.
  
• Define the local housing problem.
  
• Set a realistic date for solving the problem.
  
• Involve the community in the effort.
  
• Develop a work plan and budget.
  
• Develop the resources--money, people, goods and services--needed to accomplish the goal.

For more information about how your community can become a Certified 21st Century Challenge Community and take the next step toward eliminating substandard housing, contact your local Habitat affiliate. Visit www.habitat.org/local/ for appropriate contact information.