Liverpool Habitat for Humanity has generously been given 2.2 acres of land on Kingsley Road by the Roman Catholic Church and will be building 32 homes with partner families and volunteers over the next 5 years.

HFH has a comprehensive procedure for selecting families. There are three main criteria for qualification: to have a housing need and already llive within the Liverpool City area (that is pay Council Tax to Liverpool City Council); to be willing to partner with LHFH to put 500 hours of "sweat equity" into building on the project and to have an income between £10 - £20k. Applicants who live, work or have a strong connection with the Liverpool 8 postcode area will be preferred.

The architects for the Kingsley Road development are Ainsley Gommon Architects www.ainsleygommonarchitects.co.uk The design and the construction needed to be as simple as possible, so that our houses could be built by unskilled future homeowners helped by volunteers, and this provided a particular design challenge. For further information regarding the design click here. All Ainsley Gommon Birkenhead office staff have  volunteered to help on site and have been involved in various aspects of the build.

LHFH scoops Liverpool Daily Post Regional Property Award in Social Housing!

Well done to everyone! On Friday 11^th April LHFH was awarded the Liverpool Daily Post Regional Property award in the Social Housing category.  It was a wonderful night with so much encouragement and everyone wishing us well. The award was a real affirmation from the city of Liverpool for the contribution of all of the 1000's of individuals who have put their labour, passion and love into helping the Charity to get to where we are now. What started as a good idea is a now quickly becoming a local and national phenomenon that will I am sure soon match Habitat for Humanity internationally. This is purely down to the efforts of everyone involved. I cannot express how grateful I am to everyone for proving that money alone cannot achieve dreams - people working together do!

Now, let us all work together to make even more dreams come true. Thank you, Shannon

Chair Liverpool Habitat for Humanity

CHARITY MAKES OWNERSHIP DREAM A REALITY

January 2008 saw LHFH's very first homeowner Charanjeet Birdie move into her new home. Charanjeet & her son Tom age 8 where given the keys to the property on 16^th January 08. Charanjeet said: Habitat for Humanity is a great idea. There's a great community feel and a wide mix of people who have their own reasons for being involved. It's a good feeling to be part of that. There's no way I could have afforded the cost associated with buying a property, so this has helped me a lot, but the physical work involved means it's not for the faint hearted. The thing I've enjoyed most is that this house is already full of so much love. On our first night I had a hot bath & got a pizza and DVD with Tom, it was really cosy. I'd like to thank everyone for all their hard work"

PAID FOR WITH THE SWEAT OF HIS BROW

The beginning of May 2008 saw LHFH's second homeowner Michael Embaye move into his home. Michael & his partner Nadine were given the keys to the property on 2nd May 2008. Michael, 35 who came to Liverpool from Eritrea at the age of 12 said: " I had never even hammered in a nail before I came here; I can't quite believe the three-story property is mine. I've put up plasterboard, tiled the roof & fitted insulation, everything apart from plastering & plumbing - that's done by the professionals."