Habitat For Humanity

Whether by necessity or choice, a quarter of Americans take at least one vacation by themselves each year. Some solo travelers are single. Some have partners who dislike travel or have different interests or can't get away. Some just crave freedom. But all face the same question: What's the best trip for the person traveling alone? "The key is to know yourself," said Beth Whitman, author of a guide for women traveling alone and founder of Wanderlustandlipstick.com , a website devoted to advice and tours for women on the go. "There are times when you just need to get away, to recuperate.

On the limb of a barren tree in the tornado-devastated north Texas community of Rancho Brazos, an American flag flaps in the wind - placed there by a firefighter. "It's symbolic of, 'We're here, we're going to rebuild,'" said Sgt. Nathan Stringer, a Hood County sheriff's spokesman. The tornado has "broken homes, but it hasn't broken our will," he said. A fierce series of twisters tore through the northern part of the state Wednesday, killing six people, injuring 53, leaving scores of damaged and destroyed houses and many people homeless.

The newly formed Hollywood for Habitat, a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and the entertainment industry, is launching a 20-house "blitz-build" in Los Angeles this week. Spearheaded by director-screenwriter Randall Wallace, Hollywood for Habitat was established to raise awareness in the entertainment industry for Habitat for Humanity's mission of eliminating poverty housing.

When the upcoming comedy "The Hangover Part III" wrapped production in January, Warner Bros. was left with tons of used plywood, joists, furniture, faux brick and other materials from the film set. But instead of hauling the leftovers to the landfill, the studio donated the items - enough to fill 10 truckloads - to the charitable organization Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, to be sold in Habitat's stores in Gardena and Norwalk....

In what can only be called a role reversal, Habitat for Humanity--the ecumenical group that builds houses for low-income families--may soon be homeless, unless it finds a roommate. The San Fernando/Santa Clarita valleys branch of the nonprofit organization has occupied an 11,000-square-foot red brick warehouse for the past 15 months under a partnership with the United Methodist Committee on Relief, said Habitat office manager Hannah Almstead.

Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, will host two events this weekend celebrating his group's cause of providing housing for low-income families. Fuller will speak at 7 tonight at Mariners South Coast Community Church, 1000 Bison Ave. The celebration will continue on Saturday at a 9 a.m. groundbreaking for a 14-unit project planned in Westpark II in Irvine. The ceremony will be at Paseo Westpark and Warner Avenue.

Opponents of a Habitat for Humanity housing project slated for a greenbelt area in Wilmington have filed a lawsuit in Superior Court to stop the project. Named as defendants were the city of Los Angeles, Southern Pacific Real Estate Enterprises and Habitat for Humanity. In the lawsuit filed Friday, members of the Wilmington Citizens Committee, which wants the 1.

San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit international organization that creates housing for low-income families, plans to build 16 duplexes on Euclid Avenue in Duarte next year. The three-bedroom duplexes will cost $50,000 and be available for families with incomes of no more than $24,000. To qualify for the program, families must be employed, be able to pay a 1% down payment and put in 500 hours of labor. The application deadline is Jan. 31.

Habitat for Humanity of Orange County has named Toni Lansing its new development director. Lansing, who has been involved with the nonprofit organization through other branches for 10 years, will be responsible for fund-raising by developing and maintaining a donor base. Habitat for Humanity, which has its Orange County offices in Westminster, uses donations and volunteer work to build homes and sell them to working families at no profit.

Habitat for Humanity of Orange County has honored the city, Auto Trader magazine and Home Depot for their efforts for the organization, which works to eliminate substandard housing. In 1996, Huntington Beach gave Habitat a Community Development Block Grant and waived all building permit fees, paving the way for the group to build three homes in the city this year. Auto Trader, a longtime donor to Habitat, gave the group $50,000 last year.

GM Chairman Dan Akerson loves this car - his hardtop-convertible "regal turquoise" '58 Corvette with dual headlamps and twin chrome trunk spears. But he's giving it all up - to help Habitat for Humanity and Detroit. That car represents "pure American ingenuity and creativity" for Akerson, who states simply in a news release: "I love the car. " But he has decided it is "better purposed" elsewhere. The car will go to the highest bidder in a Jan. 18 auction .   The money will go toward rehabilitating a section of Detroit's troubled east side.

Thanksgiving is already over in Canada--it's celebrated the second Monday in October--so now our neighbors to the north are already preparing for Christmas festivities. One of the most traditional takes place in Victoria, British Columbia, where the National Gingerbread Showcase will be staged Nov. 24-Jan. 1. Amateur and professional bakers will display their wares. Last year's competition had an international flair. Replicas of Paris' Eiffel Tower and London's Harrods department store stood beside a colorful beehive and an old-fashioned bookshop.

MINNEAPOLIS — Nakeia and Ramell Dismond are like most working-class families: After the rent is paid, they have no money left in the budget for their kids' activities or vacations. That will change in a couple of months when they purchase a new home on the west edge of River Falls, Wis. Crews there are building a housing development that will produce all its own power, saving homeowners hundreds of dollars each month. The project is the largest of its kind in the nation for Habitat for Humanity, the sixth-biggest U.S. home builder last year.

Habitat for Humanity International has been known for its mission to provide new homes for the poor ever since former President Carter, its most famous volunteer, grabbed work gloves and hammer in the 1980s to help build dwellings in struggling communities. These days, Habitat is renovating the way it does business because of the mortgage meltdown, in which loose lending standards left thousands of foreclosed properties sitting vacant in the very neighborhoods the group aims to revitalize.

Millard Fuller, a self-made millionaire who gave away his wealth to start the Christian house-building group Habitat for Humanity, and who started a similar organization after he was fired over disputes with the Habitat board, died Tuesday en route to a hospital in Albany, Ga. He was 74. An autopsy was being performed to determine the cause of death. Fuller had recently been treated for chest congestion and was taking antibiotics, said a spokeswoman for the Fuller Center for Housing.

For nine years, Efrain Pineda Funes, his wife, Lucia, and their four children have shoehorned themselves into a two-bedroom apartment in Koreatown. Later this year, their housing picture promises to brighten considerably when they move into a new three-bedroom townhouse in South Los Angeles. "We feel so excited," said Funes, who installs vehicle tracking devices for a living. "We never thought we'd qualify for this nice program."

A group opposed to a Habitat for Humanity housing project in Wilmington plans to appeal a court decision allowing 13 duplexes for low-income families to be built. The Wilmington Citizens Committee says it is planning to appeal a June decision by Superior Court Judge Robert O'Brien allowing the project to proceed without an environmental impact report. The committee believes that Habitat for Humanity needs to make an environmental report before construction can begin.

After pushing a shovel into a patch of dry dirt Friday morning, Nicolas Enriquez glanced at his wife and three kids and smiled. Enriquez had just dug in the spot where the family's new home is scheduled to be built in the next year--a dream come true for five people living in a one-bedroom motor home. "It's hard living like that," Enriquez said. "Nobody has space."

Just days after $2,500 worth of tools were stolen from a Habitat for Humanity project in Oxnard, concerned county residents have pledged more than triple the tools' value in donations. "It's a very sad way to have a fundraiser," said Karen Jensen, Habitat's Ventura County project manager, of the nearly $8,000 promised. "But it just proves there are some really great people in the community who want to help us."

Habitat for Humanity is laying the groundwork for its largest construction project yet, a blitz build of thousands of homes along the Gulf Coast for people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. Operation Home Delivery is expected to start later this month in Jackson, Miss., where volunteers will assemble housing frames and put them on trucks bound for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, the organization said.