Habitat for Humanity’s Microbuild Fund announced as 2023 Silver World Habitat Award recipient
ATLANTA (Jan. 4, 2023) — World Habitat, in partnership with UN-Habitat, today announced that Habitat for Humanity’s MicroBuild Fund has received a 2023 Silver World Habitat Award. The World Habitat Awards are the world’s leading housing awards that recognize global revolutionary housing ideas, projects or programs. Habitat’s MicroBuild Fund is a micro-finance investment vehicle that helps families in developing countries obtain small loans to build or improve their homes incrementally.
Habitat’s $100 million MicroBuild Fund lends to microfinance institutions in places where home construction is completed incrementally as people do not have access to traditional housing options, such as mortgage or developer-built housing. These institutions then provide small loans to families to build safe, decent and durable homes.
The MicroBuild Fund has provided $151 million to 59 institutions in 33 countries that has benefited more than 1 million people, more than double the fund’s initial target. Habitat’s MicroBuild investments have also attracted over $582 million of other capital to low-income housing products.
“The barrier that many poor people face is not that they can’t build or improve their own home, but banks won’t lend them the money to enable it to happen. MicroBuild is a hugely ambitious global micro finance system that solves that problem for millions of people on low incomes,” said David Ireland, chief executive of World Habitat, in a statement released by World Habitat. “It is an amazing achievement to have served more than 1 million households that would otherwise not have had access to formal financial services or support.”
About Habitat for Humanity
Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The Christian housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in local communities across all 50 states in the U.S. and in more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org.