April 18, 2018
Community builds 500 houses
Housing charity Habitat for Humanity is celebrating the 500th house it has built in New Zealand.
Chief executive Clare Szabo says it has built another 500 houses in Samoa as part of the relief efforts after the 2009 tsunami and subsequent cyclones, and it is now focusing on helping Tongans recover from tropical Cyclone Gita.
It is continuing its activities in Aotearoa, where whanau Maori have been the biggest client group and have also have been some of its most enthusiastic volunteers.
"We build a house for a family in need. They have affordable payments that they pay us over a long time and at a certain point they buy the house from us. Then we can recycle that money to set up a house for a new family so with that method we have been able to build 500 houses in New Zealand over the last 25 years so that is a pretty big milestone we are celebrating this weekend," Ms Szabo says.
At Sunday’s event at its south Auckland premises Habitat for Humanity will launch a campaign to raise the estimated $1m
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