Updated Sep 12, 2019
Resilient Housing for Resilient Families. What if every family could be safe from the catastrophic effects of earthquakes and hurricanes?
Part of Build Change
www.buildchange.org
Elizabeth Hausler
Send MessageVaccinating every house like we would vaccinate every child is a public health priority: deaths from earthquakes and climate disasters devastate families but are preventable.
Build Change simultaneously overcomes all three barriers to adoption of unsafe housing:
--Money: Build Change and partners are scaling two financing models for retrofitting housing before disaster: public subsidies (Colombia) and private sector loans (Philippines). Goal: scale models in different contexts, blend them, replicate in Indonesia and Guatemala, resulting in the first ever scaled mod...
SEE ALLStage 4: Transition to Scale
Since 2004, by spending only $40M, we have safeguarded over $1.5B in housing assets across Latin America, Caribbean and Asia
Pacific, improving the lives of over 330,000 people by building new or retrofitting more than 60,000 safer buildings.
332,000
Lives Impacted to Date
3
Key Partners
12
Countries Implemented In
332,000
Customers
250
Employees
$40,000,000
Funds Raised to Date
Problem
Earthquakes hit without warning, and because of climate change, hurricanes and typhoons are becoming stronger and more frequent. Yet, global housing indicators are sliding backwards. 3 billion people will be living in substandard housing by 2030. It’s not the earthquake or windstorm that kills people, it’s the collapse of a poorly built building. This is a man-made problem with a women-made solution.
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Solution
Resilient Housing will not only protect lives and assets in disaster, but also improve the daily lives of vulnerable families. A homeowner in Bogota said her house was “like a swimming pool” before we strengthened it for earthquakes, and simultaneously fixed her leaky roof.
Target Beneficiaries
Families living in disaster-vulnerable housing and children going to school in disaster-vulnerable schools in Asia and Latin America; construction workers, engineers, and government officials working on such buildings.
Mission and Vision
Save Lives in Earthquakes and Typhoons.
Our mission is to greatly reduce deaths, injuries and economic losses caused by housing and school collapses due to earthquakes and typhoons in emerging nations.
Competitive Advantage
- Promoting and implementing a homeowner-driven, conditional cash plus technical assistance model instead of top-down, donor-driven, giveaway models.
- Promoting and implementing retrofitting (strengthening an existing building) as a viable solution for informally built homes, before and after earthquakes and windstorms. Build Change was the first organization to retrofit low-rise masonry buildings in post-earthquake Haiti, proving to skeptics that retrofitting can be done safely and cost-effectively in a difficult, resource-constrained environment.
- Using a complete model, addressing all three barriers to adoption (money, technology, people). There are organizations doing vocational training only. There are organizations offering financing only. These elements are critical, but by themselves, incomplete.
- Operating before and after disasters. Build Change uses a systems change approach, working with public and private sector to retrofit houses before the next earthquake.
Planned Goals and Milestones
- Provide technical assistance to the Colombia Ministry of Housing, following Colombia President's pledge to improve 600,000 within the next 5 years
- Scale Resilient Housing Loan in the Philippines
- SCALE, SCALE, SCALE in more countries at risk of earthquakes and climate-related disasters around the world
| Funding Goal | 100,000,000 | |
| Projected Cumulative Lives Impacted | 6,000,000 | |
| New Implemented Countries | Bahamas, The, Ecuador, Mozambique, Mexico | |
| New Feature | Resilient Housing Mobile Awareness Application / AI for rapid building assessment |
The Team Behind the Innovation
Since 2004, we improved the lives of over 330,000 people by building new or retrofitting more than 60,000 safer buildings across Latin America, Caribbean and Asia Pacific. Build Change’s Founder and CEO is a bricklayer, PhD civil engineer, social entrepreneur, and single mom, driven by social justice – everyone has the right to a safe house – and solving a multi-dimensional problem at scale. The Build Change team consists of an extraordinary, inspiring team of 255 people working worldwide.
EXECUTIVE TEAM INCLUDES WOMEN
Milestone
Jun 2019
New Country Implemented In
Sint Maarten
Jun 2019
New Country Implemented In
Dominica
May 2019
New Country Implemented In
Mexico
Feb 2010
New Country Implemented In
Haiti
Nov 2004
New Country Implemented In
Indonesia
Sep 2004
Created
