From Staff Reports
AMERICUS — The Fuller Center for Housing, a non-profit house building organization based in Americus, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month with a special five-house build in Louisiana — back to the site where it launched its first major project nearly five years ago following Hurricane Katrina.
The "building on higher ground" initiative kicked off in December 2005, to build and repair homes in Shreveport, La., for the influx of evacuees fleeing the coastal areas following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
A five-house, two-week build is currently underway through Saturday at The Fuller Center's three partners in Louisiana: Shreveport, Webster Parrish and Hammond. Two of the homes, one in Shreveport and one in Hammond, are for Hurricane Katrina evacuees who will finally be moving into a new home nearly five years after their lives turned upside down after the devastating storm.
The Fuller Center has built or renovated a total of 46 homes for Hurricane Katrina, Rita and Ike victims across Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
The Fuller Center for Housing was founded in March 2005, by Habitat for Humanity founders, Millard and Linda Fuller, to continue their vision of a grassroots mission of eradicating poverty housing. Since that time, The Fuller Center has expanded to almost 60 U.S. communities and 16 countries, building or renovating more than 650 homes. The group is on track to nearly double that number this year with plans to build or renovate 1,150 homes, including up to 500 homes in Haiti.
The Fuller Center is an ecumenical Christian organization that invites and welcomes volunteers and supporters of all faiths who share its basic belief in giving people dignity by helping them build and own a home. The Fuller Center creates partnerships within communities that bring together churches, schools, businesses and civic organizations to build decent, affordable homes for people who are unable to secure adequate housing by conventional means. All homeowners work hand-in-hand with volunteers to build their own homes, which are then sold to them on terms they can afford, based on the Biblical principle of no-profit, no-interest loans.
In its five-year existence, The Fuller Center has grown to include programs that tailor to and involve students, churches, RV owners, people interested in volunteering internationally and even cyclists with its annual Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure. The Fuller Center also oversees a mobile group of experienced volunteers called Disaster ReBuilders who relocate to towns affected by natural disasters to aid in the reconstruction efforts. The Disaster ReBuilders team is currently in Orange, Texas, partnering with AmeriCorps and the University of Cincinnati to help with hurricane recovery.
The Fuller Center continues to grow at a rapid pace. It has expanded its reach to often ignored areas facing housing, economic and social crises, including North Korea, where The Fuller Center has a partnership with the Paektusan Academy of Architecture to build energy-efficient houses for farmers. The Fuller Center is also working with Lazarian World Homes in Haiti to build earthquake-, fire- and hurricane-resistant houses for $3,000 each and has challenged every church in America to fund at least one house.
The Fuller Center does not just build houses for low-income families. The expansive reach of The Fuller Center is enabled by its innovative "Greater Blessing program," which involves renovating existing homes. This less-expensive program is key to providing a way for smaller communities to help its elderly and disabled residents by repairing leaking roofs, replacing broken windows and installing wheelchair ramps, among other things. The "greater blessing" is felt by the homeowners when they are given the opportunity to pay back the repairs over time, thus enabling other homeowners to receive help from The Fuller Center.
Although The Fuller Center experienced tragedy in February 2009, with the unexpected death of founder Millard Fuller, The Fuller Center continues faithfully marching on with his dream of a "world with no shacks."
