Habitat for Humanity’s highlights from the World Economic Forum

Leading experts, international organizations, over 100 governments and more gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum’s 2024 annual meeting this January. Habitat CEO Jonathan Reckford attended to give affordable housing a seat at the table.

Photo credit — Copyright: World Economic Forum/Sikarin Fon Thanachaiary

The World Economic Forum partners with global leaders to catalyze significant positive change — unleashing initiatives, pioneering industry advancements, furthering economic innovations, and fostering projects and collaborations, all working toward improving the state of the world.

Habitat CEO Jonathan Reckford joined other leading experts during the annual meeting to give affordable housing a seat at the table.

Jonathan Reckford shaking hands with a woman at an event.

Housing and climate change

As the climate crisis picks up pace, those without access to adequate, safe and sustainable housing are most at risk.

In an article for WEF, Reckford suggests three key strategies to help nations progress toward their climate goals and ensure those most vulnerable are put first:

  1. Recognize adequate housing as a priority in climate change action.
  2. Prioritize the most vulnerable by incrementally adapting climate-resilient homes.
  3. Invest in upgrading and greening informal settlements.

From solar home systems to green roofs and rainwater harvesting, sustainable, nature-based solutions can help conserve natural resources and strengthen climate adaptation efforts. When replicated at scale, these green initiatives reduce climate risks and protect the livelihoods of millions of households worldwide.

Read Reckford’s full article.

Read Reckford’s full article.
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Optimism for housing solutions in 2024

Alongside other members of WEF’s Network of Global Future Councils, Reckford shared his enthusiasm for the opportunities in the affordable housing sector in 2024.

“Government leaders understand the critical relationship between housing and health, education and economic stability — not just for individuals but for strong communities,” Reckford writes. “And all levels of government are partnering with the private sector to help supply catch up with demand, especially for low- and moderate-income homebuyers and renters, which the market struggles the most to serve.”

Read Reckford’s full article.

Read Reckford’s full statement and hear from other experts.
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Women in colorful clothing walk down an alleyway in an informal settlement in Bangladesh.

Yes In My Backyard

Reckford also hosted and moderated a panel of multi-sector experts to talk about efforts to counteract Not In My Backyard, or NIMBY, which describes the actions that have halted development of projects from energy to housing to high speed rail across the globe.

Reckford says that many Americans agree that affordable housing is a good thing “as long as it’s not anywhere near where I live.”

“As a result, there is a massive shortage — both quantitatively and qualitatively — of housing that’s affordable, and we really have a crisis,” Reckford says.

Yes In My backyard, or YIMBY, is the counter-movement looking to support and scale place-based innovation.

“We’re going to talk about infrastructure across energy and across the built environment and what it takes to bring together the forces to make projects happen and make them happen faster,” Reckford says.

Read Reckford’s full article.

Watch the full panel.
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Two young ladies carry a bucket of water from a kiosk.

Habitat and WASH

Access to safe and reliable water, sanitation and hygiene — called WASH — is an integral component of adequate housing. By connecting communities with our solutions, we help advance health outcomes, environmental conservation, women’s empowerment, economic growth and education.

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Habitat homeowners in hardhats on build site

Research series: How does housing affect energy efficiency?

Families with low incomes face the double burden of high costs for housing and energy despite the tendency to consume less energy. Offering energy-efficient homes to these households can reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and the homes’ energy costs and resulting energy burden.

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Habitat CEO Jonathan Reckford speaking to a crowd at the World Economic Forum.

Habitat for Humanity’s highlights from the World Economic Forum

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Habitat CEO Jonathan Reckford smiling with volunteers.

The Habitat Store

The Habitat for Humanity store is the official one-stop-shop online for all of your Habitat for Humanity merchandise. Your purchase supports our vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Deck the halls

Each year since 2007, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree on display in New York City is milled and donated to Habitat to use in construction projects. Lumber from the 2022 tree was used to build a deck and planter boxes at Sarah’s Habitat home in Corinth, New York.

Sarah and two of her three daughters, 7-year-old Adeline and 10-year-old Abigail, decorate their front porch for Christmas, ushering in the first holiday season in their Habitat home in Corinth, New York.

But even after the holiday passes and the lights and ornaments are placed into storage, Christmas will remain a permanent fixture for the family of four. That’s because their deck was made using lumber from the 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

Habitat homeowner and her two daughters plant vegetable seeds in the front yard of their Habitat home.

Sarah and two of her daughters plant vegetable seeds in a planter box built from the lumber of the 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

Each year since 2007, Tishman Speyer, the owner and operator of the Rockefeller Center, has donated the iconic Christmas tree to a Habitat affiliate for use in construction. Lumber from the 2022 tree — an 82-foot, 14-ton Northern Spruce from Queensbury, New York — was sent to Habitat Northern Saratoga, Warren and Washington Counties following the holidays. Sarah and Habitat volunteers used the lumber to build a detached side deck and two planter boxes.

Sarah says the deck will be a hangout spot for the family to grill and spend quality time. The family has already used the planter boxes, spreading out soil and planting sweet pepper and carrot seeds. Waiting for the vegetables to sprout will require time and patience, a lesson Sarah hopes her kids learned while watching her journey toward homeownership.

A drill, nails and a hard hat sit on top of lumber from the 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

Lumber from the 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was used to build a deck and planter boxes.

“I worked on getting my credit up and improving my savings for almost eight years to be able to purchase a home,” Sarah says. “My kids can see that if you put effort into something, something will come out of it. I hope my kids gain patience and understanding that things don’t happen right away, that it does take time.”

Sarah and her daughters rented an apartment before moving into the four-bedroom home she rehabbed with Habitat’s help. Sarah felt her children didn’t have a safe space to play freely and express themselves. Now, she has peace of mind knowing Adeline, Abigail and 9-year-old Allison can enjoy the playset in their backyard and paint the walls in their bedrooms without asking a landlord for permission.

More than anything, Sarah is happy her family has their own place to grow. 

“Just to be here, to have my kids grow up here. We’re continuing to make it our home instead of just a house.”
— Sarah, Habitat homeowner
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Deck the halls
Rockefeller Center Christmas tree’s journey into a Habitat home

Deck the halls

Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lumber becomes Habitat homeowner's deck

Converting underutilized spaces into adequate housing

Habitat is transforming underutilized buildings and vacant apartments into adequate housing, demonstrating that upgrading existing buildings can be a viable component to addressing the global housing deficit.

Many cities around the world have a shortage of adequate housing and an abundance of underutilized buildings and empty apartments. Habitat uses innovative and scalable approaches to addressing the global housing crisis, like converting underutilized spaces into habitable places to call home.

Habitat-led pilot projects and research in Hong Kong, Poland and the United Kingdom have shown that reviving empty spaces can be a viable component to increasing the adequate housing stock, particularly in dense urban areas where limited land availability and high construction costs create barriers for development.  

An event attendee holds an Empty Spaces to Homes toolkit developed by Habitat Great Britain.

Habitat Great Britain released a toolkit sharing best practices for converting empty spaces into habitable residences.

 

Creating shelter and community space in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, roughly 220,000 people live in subdivided flats — apartments split into dormitory-like units about the size of a parking space. More than 100,000 residents are in line for public housing, but the slow rate of construction means they can expect to wait an average of 5.5 years.

Habitat Hong Kong partnered with Juan Du, Ph.D., an architecture professor at the University of Hong Kong, to explore housing solutions to accommodate residents as they await public housing. Dr. Du’s research revealed that thousands of temporarily vacant buildings could be used to generate quality housing and community spaces in high-demand areas.

Through Habitat Hong Kong’s Housing in Place pilot project, they worked with developers in 2022 to convert four floors of a vacant building in the city’s Jordan neighborhood into an 8,000-square-foot community center and emergency shelter. Dozens of local nonprofits used the space to hold mental health workshops, provide free legal counseling and host food distribution days. Two of the floors in the converted space were used as a temporary shelter with private beds and other amenities.

Jo Hayes, Habitat Hong Kong CEO, says the center operated for six months and served as a prototype where the government and other stakeholders “could actually see this building conversion in action so that then they would scale that up.”

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Before: An underutilized community space in Hong Kong.

After: The area has been transformed into an airy and inviting community space. 

Before: An underutilized space in Hong Kong.

After: Habitat Hong Kong’s converted center features many bright and airy spaces for community members to convene, including this transformed dining area.

Before and after: This flat in Warsaw is one of the empty spaces that Habitat Poland has converted into housing.

Before and after: This flat in Warsaw is one of the empty spaces that Habitat Poland has converted into housing.

Before: Habitat Great Britain transformed an empty space formerly used as storage for a linen shop in Barking, London, into a four-bedroom apartment to house three young people leaving the foster care system and a live-in support person.

After: Habitat Great Britain transformed an empty space formerly used as storage for a linen shop in Barking, London, into a four-bedroom apartment to house three young people leaving the foster care system and a live-in support person.

Before: An underutilized community space in Hong Kong.

After: The area has been transformed into an airy and inviting community space. 

Before: An underutilized space in Hong Kong.

After: Habitat Hong Kong’s converted center features many bright and airy spaces for community members to convene, including this transformed dining area.

Before and after: This flat in Warsaw is one of the empty spaces that Habitat Poland has converted into housing.

Before and after: This flat in Warsaw is one of the empty spaces that Habitat Poland has converted into housing.

Before: Habitat Great Britain transformed an empty space formerly used as storage for a linen shop in Barking, London, into a four-bedroom apartment to house three young people leaving the foster care system and a live-in support person.

After: Habitat Great Britain transformed an empty space formerly used as storage for a linen shop in Barking, London, into a four-bedroom apartment to house three young people leaving the foster care system and a live-in support person.

Reviving empty spaces in the U.K. and Poland

Many European countries face similar housing deficits. In the United Kingdom and Poland, Habitat’s efforts to convert underutilized spaces and renovate empty apartments have helped improve access to adequate housing.

In 2018, Habitat Great Britain and the council of Barking and Dagenham, a borough in east London, partnered to transform an unused storage unit into a four-bedroom apartment that accommodated three young people leaving foster care and a live-in care worker.

The success of the conversion inspired Habitat Great Britain to launch a three-year project in July 2020 to research empty spaces and demonstrate the feasibility of converting buildings into livable units. The project expanded its scope to include empty space conversions and research in Poland led by Habitat Poland.

The research in both countries revealed that local authorities own thousands of empty or underutilized properties.

“What are all of those empty buildings going to do?” asks Tessa Kelly, Habitat Great Britain’s director of development. “If they’re already built and there’s a housing crisis, shouldn’t we be trying to convert them?”

While conducting research, Habitat Great Britain and Habitat Poland also adapted several empty spaces into flats. In Poland, renovating vacant apartments helped Habitat shelter more families fleeing the war in Ukraine. Mateusz Piegza, Habitat Poland’s program development manager, says they’ve renovated more than 20 flats in Warsaw and Silesia, the majority of which have been rented to refugees.

Scaling building conversions in Europe and across the world

Habitat Great Britain and Habitat Poland each released a toolkit sharing best practices for converting vacant spaces. Their hope is that governments and organizations across Europe will use the toolkits to scale the conversion of empty spaces.

Around the world, Habitat is reimagining affordable housing through our innovative programs. We don’t see a boarded-up building as a vacant space destined for demolition; we see it as an opportunity. By incorporating the repurposing of empty spaces into our scope of work, Habitat is able to help more families open doors to adequate housing.

Illustration of a neighborhood

Habitat House Design Contest 2023

Habitat for Humanity designs homes that are as unique, creative and strong as the people who live in them. The 2023 Habitat House Design Contest, generously sponsored for a third year by Simpson Strong-Tie, recognizes 10 Habitat affiliates for their remarkable designs across a range of categories, including affordability, sustainability and more.

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Converting underutilized spaces into adequate housing
Before and after photos of a converted flat in Poland

Converting underutilized spaces into adequate housing

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Before and after photos of an underutilized apartment rehabilitated by Habitat Poland.
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