Habitat for Humanity Poland
Poland -- Habitat for Humanity Int'l 1
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Poland suffers from severe poverty housing.
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Volunteers on site.
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Volunteers with the homeowner family.
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Finished Habitat houses in Gliwice.
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Future Habitat homeowners.
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Housing Need
Since 1989, 38 million-population Poland has undergone a remarkable political, social and economic transformation. Nevertheless, Poland suffers severe poverty housing reflected by the following facts:
• Nearly 12 million Poles – almost a third of the population – live in overcrowded homes.
• About 1.5 million families live with their relatives.
• More than 60 percent of apartments need serious renovation, and more than 10 percent need major repairs.
• More than half of all apartments are more than 36 years old.
• Low-quality building materials used in the past and poorly insulated homes are resulting in high monthly energy bills, exacerbating the problem of scarce funds for families to improve their living conditions.
There is no national housing policy dedicated to building new homes for low-income families or helping them afford renovations. Compounding the problem for low-income families, the market price of houses and land has skyrocketed in the past five years, with values continuing to rise. A comparatively high value added tax significantly adds to the cost of repairs and renovations.
Habitat for Humanity in Poland
Habitat for Humanity in Poland for 16 years has been providing simple, decent and affordable houses to low-income families living in substandard housing. Habitat for Humanity Poland’s activities today range from renovating flats in condominium blocks to building new, affordable houses.
HFH Poland has conducted five renovation projects all over Poland in partnership with homeowners associations. Renovation work is conducted in flats as well as in common areas of the building such as corridors and staircases, resulting in substantial improvements of energy efficiency. The work includes improving or fixing exterior insulation, windows and doors, roofs, plumbing and electrical/gas systems.
HFH Poland is an active player in the fight for a national housing policy that would address issues of poverty housing througout the country. HFH Poland has built a coalition called “Roofs Over Heads” with different NGOs, housing experts and institutions related to housing, and started a national awareness campaign about poverty housing.
Global Village
Habitat for Humanity Poland has an active volunteer program, hosting more than 20 volunteer teams every year. Volunteers from the U.S., Northern Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy are attracted by the diversity of the program and the rich culture and history of the country.
A strong corporate volunteer program has been developed in Warsaw where companies such as Whirlpool, IKEA, Solbet, Citi Foundation, Genworth Financial, Leroy Merlin and others have generously offered financial and volunteer support. One feature of the HFH Poland volunteer program includes house building events with corporations with up to 150 volunteers for one or two days. International schools in Warsaw and Krakow have also begun participating in weekend builds.
Habitat Highlights
• “Roofs Over Heads,” a coalition of 15 NGOs led by HFH Poland, launched a national awareness campaign against housing poverty in Poland in 2008, with 70 billboards all over the country, resulting in thousands of signatures of citizens of Poland under an open letter/petition to the prime minister on the housing situation in Poland.
• Several successful long-term, national partnerships with corporations such as Citibank, SOLBET, and Archeton have resulted in volunteers, gifts of building materials and architectural design work.
• Of the 200 families served in the country so far, HFH Poland helped 100 of them during last year alone. The assistance was offered through three programs: new house construction; renovations in partnership with homeowners’ associations; and microloans for disabled for renovation and adaptations in partnership with National Fund for Rehabilitation of Disabled People. Local Habitat organizations in Poland
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