Affordable Housing Institute : US

 

The larger an organization, the greater its need for clearly understood rules of engagement; without such rules, the organization all too often works at cross purposes to itself.  Recognizing this problem, one and a half millennia ago Saint Benedict codified what he considered appropriate monastic behavior in his famous Rule. 

 

Rule number one is …

 

To Benedictines, the rule is all of a piece; though it contains seventy-three chapters, it is all one Rule.

 

So integral was the Rule to Benedictine life that in every Benedictine monastery, there is a chapter house — located right below the dorter (dormitory), midway between the church choir and the kitchens — so named because it was here that every day, a brother would read a chapter from the Rule.

 

One a day, like vitamins

 

A similar crisis of doctrine has confronted Habitat for Humanity for the last year or so, with its new expanded doctrine being well received by many — but not everyone, as revealed in this passive-aggressive headline from The New York Times:

 

‘Some Worry Home Charity Is Shedding Grass Roots ‘

 

(As a personal peccadillo, I would really like to outlaw using ’some’ as a subject in newspaper headlines.  ‘Some’ people think the sun rises in the west.  ‘Some’ people can always be found to endorse a dubious proposition, particularly if they are elevated to journalistic prominence while being shielded behind the old saw ‘confidential sources.’)

 

“Well, I heard it through the grapevine”

 

Since [1976], more than 1,600 affiliates have sprung up around the country and built or rehabilitated more than 226,000 houses worldwide, demonstrating the power of a grass-roots movement.

 

Is Habitat grass-roots?  Or is it self-replicating?  Between the two lies a huge difference in typology and organization.

 

Benedictine monasteries were self-replicating, but in no sense grass-roots.  Each was founded by a brother abbot who went into the wilderness (today, the monasteries are in some of the world’s most beautiful places, chosen for their remote greenery, but back then, remote meant primitive. 

 

Civilizing the wilderness, eight hundred years ago

 

Now, though, that movement, driven by affiliates with the same goal but widely varying approaches to achieving it, is fraying under new leadership –

 

More judgmental prose: ‘is fraying’? 

 

that is trying to centralize the organization.

 

‘Centralize the organization’?  Or standardize?

 

Who’s defining whom?

 

Habitat for Humanity International is asking affiliates to sign an agreement that would establish a quality-control checklist, and a new policy gives headquarters a cut of each donation it receives that is earmarked for an affiliate.  

 

Let’s take the service fee first:

 

The headquarters takes 10.4% of any gift intended for an affiliate to cover processing costs, said Chris Clarke, an organization spokesman.

 

“Such indirect cost-recovery fees are a standard practice in the nonprofit sector,” Mr. Clarke said.

 

But they were never imposed under [Habitat founder Millard] Fuller.

 

Is Habitat an organization of members, where the center is merely a secretariat, or is the center part of Habitat’s overall value?  Where does the brand reside, with the center or the affiliates? 

 

Whose logo is it, anyway?

 

If the orchestra has a conductor, is the conductor entitled to a fee?

 

Should I conduct for free?

 

More than a dozen affiliates, including San Antonio, in as many states have said they will recommend that their boards reject the agreement.

 

These questions aren’t trivial; they do go to the heart of the organizational configuration.  Certainly each Habitat member benefits from the warm glow of the incredibly strong Habitat brand — which resides in the national name.  At least, if they think the trade is not worthwhile, affiliates are free to unaffiliated.  Does rejecting the agreement mean losing the franchise?  Being defrocked, as it were?

 

Cashiered from housing’s army

 

Organization officials say opposition to the new affiliate agreement has dissipated as it has gone through revisions to address their concerns.

 

“An overwhelming number have recognized the value of having a unified identity for Habitat and understand why we need this in preparation for the growth we’re going to have,” said Jonathan T. M. Reckford, the organization’s chief executive.

 

The new CEO

 

Full disclosure: I’ve met Jonathan twice, and each time liked him and thought he had a good grasp of what Habitat was and is and should become.  Even fuller disclosure: I really know and have tremendous respect for his board chairman:

 

Nicolas P. Retsinas, who heads the national board, said the affiliate agreement and other changes were efforts to increase “quality control” by creating greater accountability.

 

The bigger your network, the more its value can be undone by a rogue individual. 

 

“The challenge is to make sure that while we have those things, at the same time we maintain what Habitat is, a grass-roots, indigenous organization that does things differently in Oshkosh than it does in Los Angeles,” Mr. Retsinas said. 

 

What’s in this expanded Rule of Habitat?

 

The latest version of the 23-plus-page affiliate agreement:

 

·         Gives Habitat for Humanity the right to build houses in an affiliate’s service area.  

·         Requires affiliates to make “best efforts” to comply with a new Quality Assurance Checklist

·         Limits the use of organization trademarks

·         Creates a process for putting affiliates on probation and ending their relationship with the organization that gives headquarters control of disposing of their assets.

 

The last three of these rights are purely brand protective — or, if you like your metaphors theological, doctrinal. 

 

Protecting the brand for 1,500 years

 

Any far-flung distributed enterprise must have the ability to expel its heretics, else it is nothing more than a mob. 

 

It replaces a two-page “covenant” that spelled out principles and goals for the affiliates, like involving volunteers and donors of other faiths in their work, selling houses with no profit or interest added, and the expectation that 10% of cash contributions would be tithed to support the organization’s work abroad.

 

The more dispersed, the more there needs to be a multi-chapter rule — and rules evolve and expand as cases are enumerated:

 

Some of the largest affiliates support the new agreement. They say the original covenant is insufficient for the organization Habitat for Humanity has become.

 

Unless you rebuke the misbehaving, the herd observes and the misbehavior worsens.

 

Chris McCarthy, president and chief executive of the Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity, said she thought the agreement was a necessity, given the complexity of the organization’s business, which includes mortgage banking, land development, home building and social services.

 

As I’ve posted many times, finance is the bedrock of housing; an organization that fails to avail itself of finance needlessly limits its scope and effectiveness.  Acknowledging the financial aspects of Habitat’s work is long overdue.

 

Erin Rank, chief executive of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, said such an agreement was especially important in urban areas like hers, where at least two other affiliates work, to prevent discrepancies that might confuse government agencies, donors and others.

 

All the affiliates are fundraising in the community, trading on the national entity’s name.  If they fail to coordinate, problems arise.

 

That’s what happens when you don’t call for the ball

 

“Affiliates can interpret the covenant to fit the needs in their communities, which has led to a lot of variations between affiliates,” Ms. Rank said.

 

Translation: Without standardization, locals do things that embarrass other locals.

 

Sharon McFalls and Ben DeLuca, who ran the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Spartanburg, S.C., for more than a decade, recently quit and started a Fuller Center affiliate there, which has 11 home repair jobs lined up for the year.

 

Ms. McFalls and Mr. DeLuca said they felt Habitat’s new leadership was trying to distance the organization from its Christian roots. For instance, devotions that used to be held every morning in the main organization’s offices are now held once a week.

“It was no longer a ministry,” Ms. McFalls said. “They are turning it into a corporation.”

 

A very good friend of mine, an ordained Anglican minister, founded the Liverpool (UK) Habitat for Humanity.  She has talked about how she expresses her faith partly by ministry and partly by working in the community. 

 

 

One person, two forms of expression

 

Habitat is in the business of housing, not the business of faith.

 

Mr. Reckford and Mr. Retsinas said they did not consider the Fuller Center a competitor and were unconcerned about defections among affiliates or collaboration between Habitat and Fuller affiliates.

 

“There’s more than enough need,” Mr. Retsinas said, “so if you choose to leave Habitat and start another effort to build affordable housing, then good luck.”

 

Knowing Nic, I know he entirely means it.

 

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