Building a better world, one home at a time.
2023 has been an incredible year for Simple Homes! We completed the restoration of 3 formerly abandoned homes and dedicated them to families here in our neighborhood! (We were also joined by our Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez and Archbishop Justin Welby who have both generously supported our work!). That was just a few weeks ago!
Three homes in one year! That’s more homes than we’ve ever done in a single year since Simple Homes started back in 2008. And here’s even more great news — we have already acquired 3 more abandoned houses that we want to restore next year!!!
Because we sell each home at $35,000 we end up needing to raise quite a bit of money upfront (we put at least twice that much into the renovations for each of the homes). So that’s where we can use your help. We are ambitiously trying to raise the $105,000 we need in order to restore these three houses. Last year we had a family that grew up in this neighborhood decide they wanted to sponsor a house as a family and they raised $30,000! Maybe you can consider pitching it to a small group of friends, or business partners, or your church or faith community and make it a project you do together! Every gift makes a difference, whether it is $30,000 or $30. We are grateful for everything. As Mother Teresa said, “What matters most is not how much we give but how much love we put into giving it.”
Over the next 3 months we are launching this ambitious Homes for the Holidays Campaign — please spread the word and give what you can!
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One of the most exciting, substantial things we are doing in Philadelphia is turning abandoned houses into homes. And this past year we acquired five abandoned homes which we are restoring right now!
The model that we use is beautiful. We like to say, “We’re not building a house FOR you… we are building a house WITH you.” Each family does 350 hours of work on their home. They acquire skills and friends that will help them sustain it in the future. We sell each house, fully restored for $35,000, with a no-interest mortgage, and we customize the monthly payments to suit the household income of each family.
And we can’t do it without YOU! We rely on donations from great folks like you to make it all possible. Would you consider giving a generous, tax-deductible, end-of-the-year donation to SIMPLE HOMES?
We call this our Homes for the Holiday’s campaign, as we remember the homeless Savior born in a manger because there was no room in the inn. Let’s make room for families in need of housing this season. Thanks for your support.