The Fuller Center for Housing
Encyclopedia
The Fuller Center for Housing (FCH) is an ecumenical Christian, 501(c)3 non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Americus, Georgia
that builds and repairs homes for low-income families and individuals. It is active in 60 U.S. cities and 16 countries outside the U.S.
and his wife Linda Fuller, founders of Habitat for Humanity, at an intentional Christian community called Koinonia Farm in rural southwest Georgia. After spending 29 years of service in the Christian housing ministry at Habitat, the Fullers were motivated to continue expanding their vision of eliminating substandard housing worldwide.
The inaugural meeting of The Fuller Center at Koinonia, also Habitat's birthplace, established this new mission: "The Fuller Center for Housing, faith driven and Christ centered, promotes collaborative and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for all people in need worldwide."
Covenant partners are governed by local board members who are in charge of family selection and counseling, fundraising, training, managing mortgages, organizing volunteers, finding skilled labor and spreading the word. The FCH headquarters in Americus, Georgia, provides publications, general support, promotional materials, training for board members and – whenever possible – fundraising assistance.
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 idea of no-profit, no-interest loans. With some smaller renovation projects, an innovative payment program called The Greater Blessing Program is utilized, whereby recipients promise to repay the loan amount without signing an actual mortgage agreement. They decide the monthly amount they can afford to repay and the period of time that it will take to repay the cost of repairs. There is no legal obligation to repay these loans. Payments made by homeowners are put toward future Greater Blessing housing projects.
All decisions about family selection are managed by the board of directors of each local covenant partner. Income requirements vary from community to community. However, there are three basic criteria that everyone uses: applicant need (can't qualify for conventional loans), applicant willingness to partner (“sweat equity” volunteer hours required) and applicant ability to repay the loan. The Fuller Center does not accept government funds due to reporting requirements. Houses are sold to the homeowners with no interest and at no profit.
Global Builders are teams of volunteers sent on one, two, or three week trips to an international Fuller Center covenant partner location, where they help build homes with local families in need of adequate housing. The Fuller Center sends Global Builders teams to Armenia
, El Salvador
, Nigeria
, Peru
, Haiti
, Sri Lanka
, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Philippines and North Korea
(as of February 2011).
Faith Builders is a program designed to create partnerships with churches. Faith Builder Partners are individual churches or congregational committees who are seeking to add housing as part of their missions program. Faith in action can take on a variety of forms, including housing construction and repairs as well as domestic and international mission service trips.
The Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders (FCDR) is a mission partner of The Fuller Center for Housing. It leads The Fuller Center’s response to large-scale disasters where many low-income homes have been destroyed. They turn unlivable structures back into adequate housing for individuals and families.
FCDR do not operate in a fixed geographical region, but instead relocate to areas that have recently been hit by disasters and stay up to two years, or until significant recovery work has been accomplished. If there is a covenant partner in the disaster area, FCDR will mobilize and work in partnership with its local leadership.
Student Builders is an outreach program for high schools, colleges and universities. The program consists of a network of youth partners who are a part of The Fuller Center’s mission and ministry.
The RV Builders program organizes volunteers who are willing and able to travel to various U.S. program sites in their motor homes.
Corporate Builders is an outreach program for companies and their employee volunteering programs.
Inspired by the walks of 700, 1,000, and 1,200 miles led by Millard and Linda Fuller in the 1980's, the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure was created in 2008 by a Notre Dame graduate. The ride is intended to raise money through grassroots fundraising for The Fuller Center's projects, and also to raise awareness about the need for affordable housing for low-income families. While traveling, the team also builds or renovates Fuller Center housing projects and speaks to the media, church groups and civic organizations.
For the inaugural Fuller Center Bicycle adventure in the summer of 2008, eight cyclists biked from San Diego, California, to Savannah, Georgia. The trip raised over $134,000 for FCH programs in the U.S. and around the world. Since then, the annual summer trips have raised a total of $325,000.
The fourth annual ride will be in summer 2011, and will span 3,600 miles from Washington state to Washington, D.C.
In April 2008, FCH sponsored an Earth Day
Blitz Build. The week-long event built one home and renovated another in the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. The homes were constructed using energy efficient methods and products such as high quality insulation, house wrap, sealants, solar positioning, energy-efficient water heaters and heating and cooling units based on local year-round climate conditions.
The Fuller Center Earth Day builds are ongoing throughout the year and are intended to provide a hands-on demonstration of how affordable housing can be environmentally friendly and energy efficient.
The Fuller Center commemorated its fifth anniversary from March 15 to March 27, 2010, by constructing five houses with three covenant partners in Louisiana, where the organization initially began in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. University of Idaho students, an experienced green-build team from California, Fuller Center RV builders and volunteers from across the U.S. helped with the construction.
Millard Fuller Anniversary Build honors the vision, life and work of The Fuller Center's founder, Millard Fuller. Hosted each year by a different covenant partner, the event brings together hundreds of volunteers to build and renovate several houses in one location during one week. Fuller Center covenant partners across the U.S. and around the world participate by building, repairing or dedicating 100 homes.
Americus, Georgia
-Early years:Americus, Georgia was named and chartered by Sen. Lovett B. Smith in 1832.For its first two decades, Americus was a small courthouse town. The arrival of the railroad in 1854 and, three decades later, local attorney Samuel H. Hawkins' construction of the only privately financed...
that builds and repairs homes for low-income families and individuals. It is active in 60 U.S. cities and 16 countries outside the U.S.
History
The Fuller Center was started in 2005 by Millard FullerMillard Fuller
Millard Dean Fuller was the founder and former president of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit organization known globally for building houses for those in need, and the founder and former president of The Fuller Center for Housing...
and his wife Linda Fuller, founders of Habitat for Humanity, at an intentional Christian community called Koinonia Farm in rural southwest Georgia. After spending 29 years of service in the Christian housing ministry at Habitat, the Fullers were motivated to continue expanding their vision of eliminating substandard housing worldwide.
The inaugural meeting of The Fuller Center at Koinonia, also Habitat's birthplace, established this new mission: "The Fuller Center for Housing, faith driven and Christ centered, promotes collaborative and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for all people in need worldwide."
How it works
The Fuller Center accomplishes its work by creating partnerships 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. Most fundamental to the organization's overall functioning are partnerships with covenant partners, local organizations that sign an agreement with The Fuller Center to build or renovate houses for families in need in a particular area.Covenant partners are governed by local board members who are in charge of family selection and counseling, fundraising, training, managing mortgages, organizing volunteers, finding skilled labor and spreading the word. The FCH headquarters in Americus, Georgia, provides publications, general support, promotional materials, training for board members and – whenever possible – fundraising assistance.
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 idea of no-profit, no-interest loans. With some smaller renovation projects, an innovative payment program called The Greater Blessing Program is utilized, whereby recipients promise to repay the loan amount without signing an actual mortgage agreement. They decide the monthly amount they can afford to repay and the period of time that it will take to repay the cost of repairs. There is no legal obligation to repay these loans. Payments made by homeowners are put toward future Greater Blessing housing projects.
All decisions about family selection are managed by the board of directors of each local covenant partner. Income requirements vary from community to community. However, there are three basic criteria that everyone uses: applicant need (can't qualify for conventional loans), applicant willingness to partner (“sweat equity” volunteer hours required) and applicant ability to repay the loan. The Fuller Center does not accept government funds due to reporting requirements. Houses are sold to the homeowners with no interest and at no profit.
Programs
- Global Builders
Global Builders are teams of volunteers sent on one, two, or three week trips to an international Fuller Center covenant partner location, where they help build homes with local families in need of adequate housing. The Fuller Center sends Global Builders teams to Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Philippines and North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
(as of February 2011).
- Faith Builders
Faith Builders is a program designed to create partnerships with churches. Faith Builder Partners are individual churches or congregational committees who are seeking to add housing as part of their missions program. Faith in action can take on a variety of forms, including housing construction and repairs as well as domestic and international mission service trips.
- Disaster ReBuilders
The Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders (FCDR) is a mission partner of The Fuller Center for Housing. It leads The Fuller Center’s response to large-scale disasters where many low-income homes have been destroyed. They turn unlivable structures back into adequate housing for individuals and families.
FCDR do not operate in a fixed geographical region, but instead relocate to areas that have recently been hit by disasters and stay up to two years, or until significant recovery work has been accomplished. If there is a covenant partner in the disaster area, FCDR will mobilize and work in partnership with its local leadership.
- Student Builders
Student Builders is an outreach program for high schools, colleges and universities. The program consists of a network of youth partners who are a part of The Fuller Center’s mission and ministry.
- RV Builders
The RV Builders program organizes volunteers who are willing and able to travel to various U.S. program sites in their motor homes.
- Corporate Builders
Corporate Builders is an outreach program for companies and their employee volunteering programs.
Special Builds
- Bicycle Adventure
Inspired by the walks of 700, 1,000, and 1,200 miles led by Millard and Linda Fuller in the 1980's, the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure was created in 2008 by a Notre Dame graduate. The ride is intended to raise money through grassroots fundraising for The Fuller Center's projects, and also to raise awareness about the need for affordable housing for low-income families. While traveling, the team also builds or renovates Fuller Center housing projects and speaks to the media, church groups and civic organizations.
For the inaugural Fuller Center Bicycle adventure in the summer of 2008, eight cyclists biked from San Diego, California, to Savannah, Georgia. The trip raised over $134,000 for FCH programs in the U.S. and around the world. Since then, the annual summer trips have raised a total of $325,000.
The fourth annual ride will be in summer 2011, and will span 3,600 miles from Washington state to Washington, D.C.
- Earth Day Blitz Build
In April 2008, FCH sponsored an Earth Day
Earth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...
Blitz Build. The week-long event built one home and renovated another in the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. The homes were constructed using energy efficient methods and products such as high quality insulation, house wrap, sealants, solar positioning, energy-efficient water heaters and heating and cooling units based on local year-round climate conditions.
The Fuller Center Earth Day builds are ongoing throughout the year and are intended to provide a hands-on demonstration of how affordable housing can be environmentally friendly and energy efficient.
- Anniversary Celebration Build
The Fuller Center commemorated its fifth anniversary from March 15 to March 27, 2010, by constructing five houses with three covenant partners in Louisiana, where the organization initially began in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. University of Idaho students, an experienced green-build team from California, Fuller Center RV builders and volunteers from across the U.S. helped with the construction.
- The Millard Fuller Anniversary Build
Millard Fuller Anniversary Build honors the vision, life and work of The Fuller Center's founder, Millard Fuller. Hosted each year by a different covenant partner, the event brings together hundreds of volunteers to build and renovate several houses in one location during one week. Fuller Center covenant partners across the U.S. and around the world participate by building, repairing or dedicating 100 homes.
External links
- Fuller Center for Housing Official Web site
- Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure
- Millard and Linda Fuller Earth Day Blitz Build
- The Fuller Center of NW Louisiana-Shreveport
- Fuller Center Armenia
- Official Millard Fuller Web site
- http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/suffolk-couple-sues-over-home-rebuilt-after-08-tornado