News Article
Habitat for Humanity Armenia Relaunches
World Habitat Build kicks off in Nshavan on World Habitat Day
By Maria Titizian
NSHAVAN, Armenia – “It is our responsibility
to help those who need
our help, who don’t live as well as
we do, who are homeless and have
been abandoned, those who are
poor. All of us have been given
this responsibility from God to
help our neighbors, our fellow villagers,”
Archbishop Vicken Aykazian,
member of the International
Board of Directors of Habitat for
Humanity International said at the
relaunch of Habitat for Humanity
Armenia on October 6 in the village
of Nshavan, just 40 minutes south
of Yerevan. “Habitat does not only
build homes; it places God’s love in
our hearts.”
October 6 is United Nations
World Habitat Day, which calls
attention to the state of human
settlements and the basic need for
adequate shelter for all. The archbishop,
local and international volunteers,
organizers and villagers,
were at the village hall of Nshavan
on a bright autumn day to relaunch
Habitat for Humanity in Armenia
and help change the lives of families
forever.
Habitat for Humanity Armenia’s
strategy is three-pronged: house
construction and renovation, housing
finance for low-income families,
and advocacy for adequate housing
for everyone. According to Habitat
for Humanity Armenia, 40 percent
of the population lives in substandard
shelter. Therefore, the World
Habitat Build which was launched
this week in Nshavan is also a statement
of the organization’s commitment
to improving housing in the
country.
In addition to Nshavan, Habitat
is also working in the village
of Khachik in the region of Vayots
Dzor, close to the border with Azerbaijan.
According to Habitat, 87
percent of the 1,000 residents of
Khachik live in substandard shelter
so inadequate “that their hopes
for the future could easily blow out
of drafty doors and windows or be
doused by rain seeping through
leaky roofs.” Irina Vanyan, the executive
director of Habitat for Humanity
Armenia told the Armenian
Reporter that there is great need for
adequate housing in both Nshavan
and Khachik. She hopes that by the
end of the year, they will be able
to complete construction on 5–7
homes in Nshavan alone.
Habitat for Humanity Armenia
has partnered with the
Dutch International Guarantees
for Housing (DIGH) and the First
Mortgage Company of Armenia
to offer home loans of up
to $10,000 for semicompleted
homes with 20-year terms to
eligible families who earn from
20 percent to 65 percent of the
national median income. This of
course would exclude those who
earn below that benchmark, and
for that reason Habitat Armenia
has separately partnered with an
NGO specializing in microfinance
in Armenia “to explore offering
housing loans to families earning
less than 20 percent of the
median income, the poorest of
the poor.” According to Habitat,
they do not profit from these
loans; rather it is a sustainable,
revolving fund. As one loan is
repaid, the funds are loaned out
again to fund another home of
similar size and value.
Why a relaunch?
Implementing a sustainability policy,
according to Archbishop Aykazian,
was necessary to maintain
the viability of the fund against
pressures from global financial
trends or currency devaluations. It
was because of its refusal to implement
the sustainability policy – or
to charge interest for loans – and
its opposition to the inflation adjustment
policy of Habitat International
that the original Habitat
organization in Armenia was disaffiliated
earlier this year (see Armenian
Reporter, June 21). When the
Armenian Reporter asked whether
there would be an increase in the
repayment amount if the inflation
adjustment policy were applied, the
official response was: “The inflation
adjustment means that the loans
include a rate based on the national
inflation rate in order to enable
protection of the revolving Fund
for Humanity.... It is important to
also note that inflation does not exclusively
affect loans. Economically,
inflation also logically increases a
family’s income, keeping loan payments
affordable over time. Habitat
for Humanity adopted the inflation-adjustment policy in 1986. It
is a sustainability policy that has
helped more than 300,000 families
in nearly 90 countries into simple,
decent, and affordable shelter.”
After disaffiliation, the original
Habitat Armenia administration
registered the Fuller Center for
Housing Armenia and has begun
working as a separate entity.
Archbishop Aykazian said, “We
were obliged to have this sustainability
policy for the continuation
of the mission of Habitat.” Regarding
the disaffiliation and the establishment
of the Fuller Center for
Housing, the archbishop said that
the more organizations there are in
Armenia which support and help
families build homes, the better it
is for the country.
According to Habitat for Humanity
Armenia, Nshavan was a village
which was in desperate need
of adequate shelter. As much as 70
percent of housing in the village
is in need of rebuilding or serious
renovation. During the kickoff
ceremonies in front of the village
hall for World Habitat Day, Marzpet
Hakobyan, mayor of Nshavan,
thanked Habitat for Humanity Armenia
and all the volunteers who
had come to help change the lives
of two families of his village. He
expressed hope that although only
two homes will be renovated during
this week’s build, “in the future
many more families will benefit
from this program.”
Kenneth Bensen, CEO of Michigan
Habitat for Humanity, coordinator
for church relations for
the National Council of Churches,
spoke at length about his involvement
with Habitat and his commitment
to helping build homes in
Armenia. Dr. Bensen said he met
Archbishop Aykazian at the World
Council of Churches, where they
got to talking about Armenia and“the rest is history,” he recalls. He
has lost count of the number of
times he has been to Armenia but
thinks it’s between seven or eight
times. He told the Armenian Reporter
that last year alone there were 30
Global Village teams that had come
to build homes in Armenia.
Families living in
substandard, half-built
homes
Every country has its own specific
needs and peculiarities. “The thing
that is different in Armenia is what
I call these half-built houses. You
do not see this in other parts of
the world. Last year when we did
the build, I brought a group from
the National Council of Churches.
There was about 30 of us and the
family had been living in a basement
for many years with a dirt
floor. You don’t see that in other
areas of the world. In China or the
Philippines, you see great poverty
and you see the need. Oftentimes
they live in cardboard and tin,” Dr.
Bensen explained. “Our program
works the same all over the world.
The amazing thing is that the two
fundamentals are the same worldwide
because people are the same
and the need is the same.”
When a family has fulfilled all
the necessary criteria and is approved
by Habitat, the only thing
that is asked of them is sweat equity
according to Dr. Bensen. Habitat
brings in the volunteers and the
money, in the form of an affordable
mortgage payback system, to help
rebuild the house and bring it up to
decent standard. “We set the terms
based upon the family’s ability to
pay,” said Dr. Bensen.
Dr. Bensen explained that Habitat’s
sustainability policy is implemented
worldwide. “If someone
gives $1,000 to Armenian Habitat,
the value of that donation will stay
at $1,000 and will not be decreased
by inflation or the devaluation of
currency. That is fundamentally
what the sustainability policy is.”
Lucija Popovska, the program
director for Habitat for Humanity
International, Europe and Central
Asia, explained they are able to help
many families in Armenia because
of the way they operate. “We have
figured out many ways to build inexpensively
or to renovate by using
a lot of volunteer labor, by designing
simple solutions, by having our
architects retrained to build simple
houses. We put a financial system
in place that is affordable for the
family,” said Ms. Popovska.
Regarding financing the loans for
the families, she said, “In Armenia
we work with the First Mortgage
Company, a relatively new company,
a local Armenian company. They
are one of the first mortgage banks
and they are interested in reaching
out to this clientèle. The majority
of our clients just can’t walk
into a bank and get a loan, even if
they could afford it. They have no
credit history, their property is not
in a condition that a bank would
consider decent collateral. Nobody
gives these people loans.” The family’s
involvement with Habitat gives
them many benefits, according to
Ms. Popovska. “The first thing is
they get equity and they’re getting
credit history. By improving their
property, they are improving their
general financial credibility. Most
of the traditional banks and are not
interested in our client group, because
it is difficult and vulnerable
group. We were lucky with the First
Mortgage Company because they
are relatively new and are keen to
work with our client group.”
What happens when a family defaults
on their loan? Ms. Popovska
said “The way we try to remedy default
rates is by a very, very serious
selection process - building a
relationship and partnership with
a family. The time that families
default is when something in the
family changes, like one person losing
their job or a death in the family.
There is a justifiable reason and
then we work with the family to
reprogram the loan.”
Habitat for Humanity Armenia
partners with many organizations
including the Ministry of Urban Development,
the Urban Foundation
for Sustainable Development, the
municipality of Nshavan, the First
Mortgage Company, and other relevant
institutions and organizations.
To date, Habitat for Humanity has
built 400 homes across Armenia,
providing not only shelter and comfort
but hope for the future. 
http://www.reporter.am/
|
