Partner Housing Australasia (Building) Incorporated

Partner Housing Australasia (Building) Incorporated is a Christian ministry working with families, volunteers and donors to provide building services, financial assistance and nurture for the provision of affordable housing to those in need throughout Australia and beyond.

As we draw towards the end of our second year as a non-affiliated independent charitable organisation, it is instructive to reflect on our mission statement at the top of this report.

Partner Housing Australasia (Building) Incorporated[1] provides professional architectural and engineering services to overseas organisations seeking to eliminate poverty housing and provide post-disaster reconstruction.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and “Love your neighbour as yourself”. (Mark 12.38) We are non-denominational and do not discriminate in the dispensation of donations or services. It is our policy to ensure that our “… activities reflect our Christian identity through [our] programs and procedures”.

In Australia we have developed and built 16 affordable houses over the last 20 years for needy families, acted as the “builder” for another, and assisted our sister organisation the construction of another four houses over an extended period. We have provided interest-free long-term mortgages and nurture for sixteen partner families. Of our sixteen partner families, the most recent five remain in homes built by the organisation. The other eleven families have, over time, moved or down-sized as their family needs have changed, and paid out their mortgages. That this is possible is considered as sign of the ultimate success of the organisation.

As a general rule, charitable organisations that seek to raise large quantities of money increasingly rely on paid staff to conduct professional fund-raising campaigns. However, Partner Housing clearly focuses on our mission as a volunteer-based organisation, concentrating our future activities on the provision of services, rather than the expenditure of major finance. This is a major reorientation of the organisation – in many ways a return to our roots. There are many retired, part time and fully-employed people with skills that an organisation such as ours can deploy. Our major role is matching volunteers with the right skills to specific projects associated with alleviating poverty housing throughout our region.

Like all charitable organisations, we rely on the generosity of our donors. Whilst our focus on deploying volunteers means that we no longer need to raise (literally) hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, we still need sufficient funds to cover overheads and to support overseas building supervision projects. The work of our Finance Team is critical to our ability to deliver this support.

The focus of Partner Housing’s activities is the provision of volunteer professional services for “disaster-relief” programs and affordable “save and build” housing programs in developing countries. Partner Housing offers “Design & Supervision” packages to other major NGOs (non-government organisations) that are undertaking such programs. We offer to fund, train and monitor building supervisors in developing countries, whilst supplying them with professionally produced design and documentation for a range of housing.

Our Nurture Team keeps us focussed on our primary concern – improving the lot of our partner families. We also are considering the provision of expanded nurture services, in relation to home ownership, for the wider community.

“…… for the provision of affordable housing to those in need ……”

The assistance given to developing countries is aimed at providing affordable housing to those in need.

Our Professional Services Team is currently providing design assistance in Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Timor Leste, Mongolia, Cambodia, India and Indonesia.

[1] Partner Housing Australasia (Building) Incorporated (ABN:88 722 057 429, CFN:15429, Building Licence 135941C) has existed with various names since its incorporation in September 1989, and is referred to as Partner Housing in this report. It previously operated as Habitat for Humanity Western Sydney Inc.