World Habitat Day

From Habitat for Humanity:

As part of our mission to make housing a matter of conscience and action, Habitat for Humanity will raise its voice to support World Habitat Day on Monday, October 6, 2008.

This year, Habitat for Humanity is demonstrating support of World Habitat Day by shining the spotlight on the lack of secure tenure for the world’s poor.

World Habitat Day, an annual event created by the United Nations, falls on the first Monday in October and unites people of goodwill and organizations around the cause of housing to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

For the more than 1.6 billion people suffering from some sort of shelter deprivation in the world, that future is bleak. Without access to adequate shelter, clean water or sanitation, upwards of 10 million people die each year from preventable diseases. Many of them are infants. In some parts of the world, entire families face forced eviction from property or land they own.

Urbanization continues at a rapid rate, with half of humanity now living in towns and cities. Today, one-third of the current urban population—a staggering 1 billion people—live in slums. By 2030, estimates are that two-thirds of the world’s population will be urban dwellers, exponentially increasing the number of people living in slums if action is not taken to provide decent and affordable housing.

Learn more at

http://www.habitat.org/gov/take_action/world_habitat_day.aspx