Habitat Stories

Young Lamario Fourney shares what life is like now that his family lives in a Habitat for Humanity home.

Eric’s family purchased a Habitat for Humanity home in the Florida farming community of Immokalee, Florida, which among many other things, provided stability and quiet. Eric recently earned a full scholarship to Cornell University, where he wants to study business and hotel management and bring his skills back to his hometown. He’s one of a group of Immokalee students who started Taste of Immokalee, a business that highlights their community’s commodities and produces sauces, salsas, and spice products that are now appearing on the shelves of local Publix stores. “Eric is a great example of what an impact housing makes in the life of a child,” said Lisa Lefkow, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Collier County.

Maria Lucia is a single mother who works full time as a janitor in a hospital to support her 7-year-old daughter Bia. They live in a one-bedroom house in Bomba do Hemeterio, a low-income neighborhood in Recife, the sixth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil.

People in your community and all over the world partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve the place they call home. In fact, Habitat is the largest privately held homebuilder and regularly ranks as one of the top 20 homebuilders in the United States.

In J.Z.’s home, the children ask their friends for charitable donations instead of birthday presents. The kids already get plenty of gifts from relatives, their parents say, and giving to a charity teaches compassion for those not as fortunate and an understanding that everyone can make a difference.

The smell of fresh paint always takes Boris Henderson back. Back to the day he walked through the door of his family’s new Habitat house for the first time.