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World Habitat Day

More than 30 years ago, the United Nations General Assembly took an important step in promoting the idea that

everyone deserves a decent place to live

by declaring the first Monday in October as World Habitat Day.

In celebration of World Habitat Day, Habitat hosted a poster contest in partnership with General Beadle and St. Elizabeth Seton elementary schools. The 4th grade students created their vision of the theme “Homes of the Future”, with three students from each school winning top prizes donated by local area businesses.

Thank you to everyone who participated this year!

Global need

  • Today, 1.6 billion people live in inadequate shelter around the world; 1 billion of those live in informal settlements. More than 100 million people worldwide are homeless.
  • About one in four people live in conditions that harm their health, safety, prosperity and opportunities.
  • By 2030, UN-HABITAT estimates an additional 3 billion people, about 40 percent of the world’s population, will need access to housing. This translates into a demand for 96,150 new affordable units every day and 4,000 every hour.

Purpose of Celebrating World Habitat Day

  • To pay attention to the need for better shelter all over the world.
  • To share the priority of affordable and adequate housing everywhere.
  • To bring positive changes in systems, including policies and attitudes of persons causing poverty housing.
  • To reflect on the states and towns and pay attention to the basic human rights for adequate shelter.
  • To increase the awareness worldwide of joint responsibility for the future generation’s habitat

Habitat for Humanity’s response

Every year Habitat for Humanity joins our partners around the world to rededicate ourselves to recognizing the basic right of everyone to adequate shelter. Habitat for Humanity asks everyone to join together as one global network in communicating the message that every one of us deserves the opportunity for a better future and that a decent place to live can remove barriers to opportunity, health, and success that might have been part of a family’s life for years, and in many cases for generations.