Habitat For Humanity International

Visit the main website or learn more about HFHI around New York below.

The Habitat Tithe

Habitat affiliates around the world raise money to build homes in their own communities, but their efforts also pay benefits in other areas of the world.

Ten percent of the unrestricted cash income received by affiliates is sent to Habitat for Humanity International for distribution in some other country to support home building. The money goes to third world countries where the tithe related to a home built in the United States is sometimes enough to build an entire home.

Affiliates are able to direct their funds to a specific country, and Habitat for Humanity of Seneca County has designated its tithe for Habitat for Humanity's affiliates in Nicaragua.

Habitat has been working in Nicaragua since 1984. 80% of the Nicaraguan population subsists on less than US $2 per day, and 43% on less than US $1 a day. Habitat for Humanity Nicaragua works with four main initiatives to serve low-income families with a special emphasis given to women-headed households, families with three or more dependents, families with special needs, and families with a monthly income of less than US $350. In 2010, a full house sponsorship costs $8,670.

"The knowledge that more than 500,000 people in Nicaragua continue to live in substandard shelter has prompted Habitat for Humanity of Nicaragua to launch the More Than Houses Campaign. Together, by building simple, decent houses, we pursue our goal of eliminating impoverished housing worldwide."
- Daryra Delgadillo Martinez, Resources Development Coordinator, Habitat for Humanity, Nicaragua
Since then we have worked with eight families to build or renovate homes:
  1. On June 10, 2000, we broke ground for the affiliate's first home, in Seneca Falls. It was dedicated Dec. 2, 2000.
  2. The second project was the rehabilitation of a one-story home in Ovid. Work actually started before the Seneca Falls home was finished, and the house was finished in the fall of 2001.
  3. In June of 2002 we started a new home on Black Brook Road in Tyre, which was sold in June of 2003.
  4. In June of 2003 we started work on a new home in the village of Interlaken; it was completed in August of 2004.
  5. In September of 2006 we started renovating a home on Wycliffe Road in Waterloo. It was completed in June of 2007.
  6. In March 2008, we renovated a home on Seneca Manor Drive and completed it by September 2008.
  7. In December 2008, we began rebuilding a home on Seneca Place and dedicated it in January 2010.

The national office of Habitat for Humanity is in Managua. The country's affiliates are:

  • Jinotega
  • Matagalpa
  • Bluefields
  • Diriamba
  • Leon
  • Chinandega
  • Corinto/Realejo
  • Esteli
You also can look up any Habitat affiliate on the web site of Habitat for Humanity International.
Equal Housing Opportunity

We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the nation. We encourage and suggest an affirmative advertising and marketing program in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.

Habitat for Humanity
of Seneca County
PO Box 223
Seneca Falls, NY 13148
Phone: 315.568.1190
E-mail Us