Habitat Housing Empowerment Expo

One of the most inspiring parts of working at Twin Cities Habitat is watching our partner families make their dreams of better housing for their families come true.  From the beginning, Habitat has used the slogan “a hand up, not a hand out” to describe how families achieve better housing situations through partnership.

So, it breaks my heart every time I am out in the community and hear a resident say “I didn’t think Habitat could help someone like me.”  It means that, because of recent financial hardship or generational poverty, they’ve lost hope that there are people who believe in them and their dreams.  Maybe when they’ve reached for a hand up they’ve been too often slapped away.  Maybe they can’t see anyone reaching out to them anymore.  Maybe they’ve stopped believing that they deserve to have a decent, affordable place to live.

That is why I’m so excited about the 2^nd Annual Housing Empowerment EXPO.  Two hope-filled organizations—the Northside Pastors’ Collaborative and Twin Cities Habitat—are making the outstretched, helping hand more visible and more tangible than ever before to residents in North Minneapolis.  This event, happening 1-5PM on January 26^th at Shiloh Temple International Ministries, will give families a chance to explore homeownership, talk to housing counselors, and learn about other resources to improve their housing situation.

Habitat is founded on the belief that everyone deserves a decent place to live.  Co-founder Millard Fuller said it best “Anybody who gets tired at night ought to have somewhere decent to come home to.”  With the EXPO, were making sure that those families in our community who may have stopped believing that they are worthy of better housing know that we haven’t stopped believing in them or stopped reaching out to them with a hand-up.

See you there.