Rachel West Community Service Practicum Robert Arnold September 19, 2013 Reflective Journal Entry #2 The article

I chose was titled The Rise of Habitat for Humanity Subdivisions by Christa A. Smith. It was featured in the September 1, 2013 American Geographical Society's Focus on Geography edition, Volume 56, Issue 3, on pages 95-104. On EBSCOhost, it is listed under Business Source Complete and the Accession Number is 89680726. The articles components included a brief history of low-incoming housing in America, especially looking at the influence of laws. I learned about several acts that Habitat depends on today; according to the article, SHOP [Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program] grants alone have contributed to the construction of one-half of all Habitat houses built in the United States (page 5). When the non-profit organization was first started by Millard and Linda Fuller in 1976, they refused to accept any government money to help with Habitat. But with economic downturns and affiliates struggling to be able to buy relatively cheap plots of land to build Habitat houses on, Habitat began accepting government help, just to buy the land needed to build Habitat houses. I also learned that affordable housing is defined as when a household has to pay no more than 30 percent of its income on mortgages or rents, taxes, and utilities (page 1). However, the study noted that today, almost 20.2 million house renters and homeowners have to pay more than half of their income towards such necessities, which is astonishing given the original definition. The article also gave a history of Habitat for Humanity, from its beginnings to the present. Finally, it focused on the building preferences Habitat for Humanity has, which is housing in subdivisions, preferably in clusters of nearby Habitat homes; the reasoning behind

these clusters is because scattered development would have little impact on the often deteriorating neighborhoods surrounding it. Also, managing volunteers across far-away locations and getting the supplies to different locations are just two hassles produced by not building clusters of houses. Habitat also prefers to build as many homes together, at once, in what it calls building blitzes. (Page 5) I had no idea that Habitat depends on so much government monies. Although the funds definitely go to good use, it opens my eyes to the impact that government has on non-profits. I do not support this all the way, but I do realize that there are few to no other options available when an organization is in a financially dry period. I also learned interesting counter-arguments to Habitat Subdivisions. If you have lowincome people all together in the neighborhood, wont that create more struggles for the families to keep surviving? If they are still surrounded by poverty not in their housing situations, but in their personal stories and situations wont it be more difficult to break the cycle? Several homeowners beside Habitat Subdivisions in the article also cited the increased crime rates in poor areas. These are valid points that need to be discussed, but I have a feeling that Habitat will not be changing their policies any time soon.