100,000 Homes for the Chronically Homeless

The 100,000 Homes Campaign intends to secure housing for 100,000 of the nation's most vulnerable homeless people.  More than 100 communities have signed on to make the dream happen.  Getting the homeless housed relies on this working model:

1. Build a strong, diverse local team
2. Clarify the local demand for permanent housing
3. Begin lining up permanent housing and support resources
4. Start moving people into permanent housing
5. Help people improve their health and retain their housing

To date, nearly 11,000 long-term and vulnerable people now have a home thanks to the 100,000 Homes Campaign.  The organization hopes to reach their 100,000 mark by July 2013.

HERO in Alabama

HERO serves west Alabama's Black Belt community. The nonprofit's work centers around development in the impoverished region and provides housing resources and education.  Paths to home ownership are made available to residents by:

• Credit Counseling
• Rural Development 502 Loan Program
• Self-Help Housing
• Habitat for Humanity
• Rural Development Mutual Self Help
• Grants
• Step Up Financing

HERO also addresses community needs in partnership the Angel Food Ministries food bank, a Thrift Store, Pie Lab, YouthBuild job training, and utility assistance via HUD.

Volunteers for HERO's programs paint, clean, frame and roof homes. The organization welcomes those with special skills to share.  If you'd like to volunteer, contact them

• By Email: info@herohousing.org
• By Phone: 334-624-0842
• In Person: 1120 Main Street, Greensboro AL 36744

HERO is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 am - 4:30 pm

The $300 House Project: a dream for sustainable and dignified living

Vijay Govindarajan and Christian Sarkar first proposed The $300 House in the The Harvard Business Review.  Severe limitations on choices keep the poor impoverished forever, trapped in poverty by lack of opportunity.  Furthermore, Govindarajan suggests leaving 5 billion impoverished people out of the loop is a missed opportunity for corporations as equal talent, creativity, and enthusiasm is just as likely to be found in poor populations.

The $300 House project began with simple questions:

• How can organic, self-built slums be turned into livable housing?
• What might a house for the poor look like?  
• How can world-class engineering and design capabilities be utilized to solve the problem?  
• What reverse-innovation lessons might be learned by the participants in such a project?  
• How could the poor afford to buy this house?

The project now has its winning designs and will move forward with prototypes and pilot projects before eventual implementation.  The poor of India, Indonesia, and Haiti will be the first nations given the chance

"...to live safely and build an inclusive ecosystem of services around them which includes, clean water, sanitation, health services, family planning, education, and micro enterprise, maybe we can start reducing the disease of poverty. By helping create this ecosystem, we believe companies can make money while providing services needed by the poor at an affordable cost. The poor deserve a chance, a real chance, to make it out of poverty."

You can check out the winning designs here.