UPC Habitat Mission Statement: To engage as many
Church Members as possible to participate in urban ministry work by
building one home every year for families in need.
In late 2000, UPC’s Urban Mission department, under the
leadership of Pastor Allen Belton, began exploring teaming with the
Seattle/South King County chapter of Habitat for Humanity to engage
UPC members in an active partnership to help working poor families
become homeowners. This effort involved forming a lay-run Task Force,
raising all of the construction funds, coming alongside and advocating
for our Habitat families, mobilizing volunteers to help with
construction on Fridays and Saturdays, and coming up with a
sustainable plan to repeat this process and build a home per year.
Since then, UPC has raised more than $575,000 and built seven
Habitat homes. In December 2010 we begin work on our eighth house in
Rainier Vista while working to raise $75,000 to sponsor our ninth
house, also in Rainier Vista. Our volunteer database currently
exceeds 1,150 names and has resulted in over 13,000 hours of
construction labor towards building Habitat homes in the Seattle area.
Our primary funding source is an annual
fundraising breakfast held in January.
Along the way, we have transitioned from a program that initially
involved leading and building a single family home alongside and in
close partnership with our Habitat family to a process that spreads
our effort over the larger build site, working with other groups of
volunteers as well as future Habitat homeowners helping construct
multi-family units. Throughout these changes, we remain keenly aware
of the opportunity we have to be conduits of Christ's love as we build
with Habitat for Humanity.
For more information about Habitat for Humanity, please see the
links in the sidebar to the left.