Habitat’s Founder Plans Big Project

Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, has never been intimidated by big names or big money. After all, he’s working to build--literally--the kingdom of God.

And in a recent visit here, Fuller said he wants to do something his famed housing program for the poor has never done before in the United States: build 100 homes--a small piece of the kingdom--in a week.

“Together, we can do a miracle,” Fuller told civic leaders as he urged them to rally behind his 1998 Jimmy Carter Work Project. “And that’s what it will be.”

This summer, 3,500 Houstonians and 1,500 out-of-towners will build 100 homes at four inner-city sites in a week.

It will be done in the classic Habitat way.

Under Habitat’s rules, client families must contribute 300 hours of sweat equity by helping build their homes or working at the local Habitat office. Homes are sold to qualified families at no profit and at no interest. The mortgage is paid back over a fixed time period, with all funds channeled back into building other homes. Fewer than 1% of Habitat’s clients default on their loans, compared with a 4% default rate nationwide.

Fuller began his religious life in the civil rights South where racial barriers often seemed unbridgeable. But he has made his name bridging those ethnic divisions and in not being intimidated by obstacles.

When Habitat needed a big-name backer, he recruited former President Jimmy Carter, who now devotes a week each year to helping Habitat build houses.

And while he insists it is God who saves souls, he is equally insistent Southern religion’s traditional preoccupation with the sweet bye-and-bye--the religion in which he was reared--is out of kilter with the Gospel’s focus.

Christians are called to follow Jesus’ admonitions to his disciples, he said. “What did he teach his disciples to pray?” Fuller asked. “(He told them to say) ‘Thy kingdom come.’ What Jesus is saying is: as you envision it in heaven, work for it to be like that on earth. Jesus is head of Habitat for Humanity in heaven.”