 |
 |
|
|||
|
NEXT MEMBER EVENT UCLA, L.A., CALIFORNIA: 06.30.06 |
 |
Member Reflections |  |
||
Justin D. Beckert Loyola High School, New York, New York I truly enjoy volunteer work, and one of my favorite charitable organizations is Habitat for Humanity. During my spring break this year, as was true the prior year, I worked on a Habitat for Humanity project in the Appalachian region of the United States. I value the sense of community that these types of projects can offer students, and it gives me the opportunity to reflect on how much I, and my fellow students, take for granted every day. There is no better reward for me than to see the results of my active participation in creating a better life for someone in need. While every person deserves to have their most basic needs in life met in order to survive, I recognize that there are an insufficient number of programs and volunteers to meet the need for relief. While there are hundreds of organizations attempting to service the desperate need for food among the impoverished, there are too few organizations servicing the growing need for adequate shelter. Homelessness and substandard housing is morally and socially unacceptable, and there has been a rise in substandard housing and homelessness over the past two decades in the United States and elsewhere because of a growing shortage of affordable housing and an increase in poverty. Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods, compound the worldwide problem of garnering sufficient resources to provide shelter to those who need it. One way to address the problem of homelessness and substandard housing would be through new governmental and professional programs designed to enhance and expand the services provided by Habitat for Humanity and similar organizations. New programs successfully developed in the United States could be employed as models for similar programs worldwide. The biggest issue in developing successful new programs will be finding the resources to support the expansion of housing relief efforts. Although Habitat for Humanity has volunteers throughout the world, its resources are spread thin. For example, the estimated cost of remedying the homelessness suffered by the over 50,000 families victimized by the December 2004 tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Summer of 2005 will most likely exceed $50 million. This type of disaster assistance diverts desperately needed resources for non-disaster related housing projects in the United States and elsewhere. One way to expand Habitat for HumanityÕs effectiveness would be to initiate, where appropriate, mandatory contribution programs in the workplace, schools, and universities. For example, business owners in the field of construction could be required to annually donate a certain amount of materials or labor to housing relief efforts in order to maintain the validity of their licenses. The required amount of materials or labor to be annually donated could be proportionately set as a percentage of revenues, whereby the construction enterprises with the highest revenues will be required to make the largest donations. High schools that receive federal or state funding could require student participation in housing relief programs as part of mandatory community service programs, as Habitat for Humanity has existing programs for high school students who are able to participate in projects during school breaks and over the summer. At the level of higher education, colleges receiving federal or state funding could require students majoring in fields such as Architecture, Urban Design and Construction Management to provide ideas, plans, and personal time to housing relief organizations as part of their required curriculum. If we all agree that homelessness and substandard housing is morally and socially unacceptable, and acknowledge that there has been a rise in substandard housing and homelessness, we can address this problem by supporting initiatives for mandatory programs to supplement existing volunteer and charitable efforts. Essentially, if more people are involved in shelter relief efforts, we can come closer to finding solutions to this worldwide problem. Only a concerted effort by the existing volunteer organizations, together with new mandatory programs, will ensure adequate housing for all. We need to help those who cannot help themselves; it is a basic tenet of human decency. |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|||||||