Anyone have any experience with Habitat for Humanity?

Question

volunteers, buying a home from them. anything if so was it a good experience.

Answer 1

Yes, I've been a lifetime volunteer AND a Habitat staff member, I can tell you anything you want to know. As the other person said, your experience will vary by chapter. Some are uber Christian and will make you feel like you have to convert to be a homeowner. Others are relaxed and welcoming of all people. Some have stricter requirements to be a homeowner than others. Some have long waiting lists for volunteers because they can't accomodate them all and others are dying for absolutely any volunteers. On the whole I think it's a great, stable program which is ensuring real, lifetime change for hundreds of thousands of people. I like that they emphasize simplicity so they can build more houses, and that unlike giving you one meal or something, they give you an asset you can pass down to generations. But you have to be dedicated to be a homeowner, there's a lot to go through. As a staff member I had a terrible experience because our Executive Director was an insane, bigoted fundamentalist who made my life h**l. But I'd say as a volunteer it's very possible to feel fulfilled with habitat and get the warm fuzzy feeling you want, and you often get to work alongside the homeowner you're helping, which is nice.

Answer 2

The organization is great as a whole. I've known people who have helped build houses and they've enjoyed it. But my company offered to donate a termite treatment on a house they were building near our neighborhood. They originally said OK, then I get a call that another pest control company offered to treat five houses and that if I didn't want to do all five that they didn't want me to even do the one. It really made me mad. I told them that as a small company I couldn't afford to do that. Well anyway, I ended up getting to treat the one house but it sure didn't give me the "warm fuzzy" that I thought I'd get from donating to charity. All in all, I think it depend on who runs your local chapter and how well it is run.