By Rachel Lewitt

After spending his summer as a development and marketing intern for Habitat for Humanity, John Favini ‘14 has been working diligently to start a chapter of the organization here at Lafayette.

Habitat for Humanity is a well-known organization that provides affordable housing for low-income families in the United States and abroad. Habitat’s affiliate office in Allentown organizes all the builds in the Lehigh Valley.

Favini, who has previously participated in mission trips with his school and church, including the Pittsburgh Project, said he began to consider revitalizing the relationship between Habitat and Lehigh Valley colleges (Lafayette among them) over the summer.

“There is a huge need for housing in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. There are people in our backyards and within our communities that need to be taken care of,” he said.

Other interns from Habitat for Humanity in the Lehigh Valley attending Lehigh University, Moravian College and Muhlenberg College are preparing to lead similar initiatives, with the goal of building one house using money raised by the campus chapters. Typically, houses are paid for through large corporate sponsorships.

Habitat for Humanity’s model of home building is designed to equalize, acting as a “hand up, not a hand out,” Favini said. Habitat aligns itself with a paradigm of increased personal agency.

“Potential homeowners must have a steady job, a demonstrated need for housing, and a minimum credit score. After they are approved, the future homeowners must spend 250 hours working on their own home or another Habitat house,” Favini said.

The homeowners often build alongside employees, whose companies donate upwards of $85,000 (for full house sponsorship), developing a strong relationship between the family and the builders. This type of interpersonal community involvement is exactly what Favini is hoping to foster in Lafayette’s future chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

He has already written the constitution—a requirement for any new Lafayette club—and has garnered a great deal of student support on campus.

While there is a division of Landis (the West Ward Neighborhood Partnership Division, run by Matt McKenzie ’14) that has worked with Habitat in the past, Favini hopes that opportunities for a more hands-on relationship between Lafayette and Habitat for Humanity could be achieved through the formation of a club on campus.

According to McKenzie, the Landis center is more focused on direct, immediate service, which is why he has focused the Landis division he oversees on “civic engagement and working with the community—cleaning up gardens, weeding, planting,” and not on trying to engage with Habitat, which he says doesn’t only want volunteers and “hasn’t reached out to him.”

Bonnie Winfield, Director of the Landis Center, says that the reason Lafayette hasn’t been as engaged with Habitat is because “the Lehigh Valley chapter hasn’t been strong in the past” so they have instead worked with a New Jersey program.

Winfield added that this past summer, Habitat’s office in Allentown “asked to work through Landis.”

Winfield hopes to integrate the programs and work on the same page with Habitat. “I think a great idea would be to do a corporate build for Lafayette, where faculty, students and the administration work together to build a house.”

For more information regarding a Habitat for Humanity club on campus please contact John Favini at [email protected].