Homeowner-driven housing

Power in the hands of the homeowner

Decision Equity, not Sweat Equity.

At Build Change, we believe that resilient housing programs should take a holistic approach to home improvement: one that recognizes the home as the ultimate protection for families and works to ensure it is a safe, healthy, and secure space, which can provide opportunities for growth.

Underlying our work is the desire to have a positive and lasting impact on people’s safety and their lives.

To do this, we apply the following approaches:

• Prioritizing homeowner-driven implementation
• Shifting power to women
• Viewing housing as a whole
• Leveraging multiple channels for public awareness

The most successful and sustainable housing programs are those which are driven by homeowners themselves.

We start by meeting people where they are. We use a variety of communication tools to reach communities in relevant and understandable ways, ensuring they have access to the knowledge they need to make their home safe.

This can include:

• Community meetings
• Street theater
• Meetings led by credible messengers
• Apps and text messages
• Media and social media
• Posters, flyers, billboards, radio programs
• Toll-free help lines
• Technical assistance centers and “Resilience Beacons”

Build Change promotes homeowner-driven, conditional cash plus technical assistance, a model now used in post-disaster and prevention contexts around the world.

Using this model, homeowners make decisions about materials, design, locations of windows, doors, toilets. They are equipped with the technical knowledge and resources required to ensure their home’s safety so that they can handle the cash and hire local labor.

Throughout the process, the homeowner retains control over the procurement of labor and materials, while the program implementing agency provides technical assistance and ensures compliance with the agreed program standards, building codes, and land-use regulations.

It empowers women. Across the world, we’ve found women to be incredible stewards of their family’s safety and wealth, when they gain power through access to the necessary knowledge and financing to lead the design and construction of their homes. 

It leads to higher homeowner satisfaction. Homeowners are more satisfied when they determine the design of their own home, what materials are used, and who builds it. 

It leverages existing resources. Homeowners can contribute their own financial resources or labor, or reuse materials. This is a more sustainable model and contributes to ownership of the process. 

It stimulates the local economy. Homeowners typically purchase materials from local suppliers and procure local labor. 

It develops and sustains a local workforce. Training builders develops local technical capacity, and produces a larger, more specialized, more employable workforce who can then train others. 

It is more cost efficient. Giving money directly to homeowners minimizes overheads and bureaucracy, and reduces opportunities for graft or theft. 

It reduces waste. When homeowners manage design and construction, they typically build only what they need. Not only do they consume and waste less, they also reuse and recycle more. 

Read more about the homeowner-driven model in

The Build Change Guide to Resilient Housing.