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MIssion / Charter
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HISTORY OF GHF
 Global Housing Foundation was launched in 1999 when its late founder, René Frank, took up a challenge from the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements (UNCHS) as to why the private real estate industry did not do more to help solve housing crises around the world.
GHF was established as an independent, U.S. and European based not-for-profit organization that leverages the expertise and resources of the private real estate community to build new affordable housing for the working poor around the world.
 René Frank hoped that he and others in his industry could make a real contribution to alleviating the deplorable living conditions in many of the world's inner-city slums. He received immediate cooperation from the UNCHS (UN-HABITAT) and other United Nations' agencies, including sponsorship from FIABCI, the International Real Estate Federation. He was also moved by the generous response of colleagues in the American and international real estate industries.
 Global Housing Foundation went right to work, focusing its first new slum improvement efforts in Managua, Nicaragua. Fifty new houses were built withintwelve months of the program's launch. In 2007 a new agreement of cooperation was signed with UN-HABITAT and Merrill Lynch to provide a program for local banks in developing countries to originate and sell long-term mortgage loans for the working poor to purchase and own their homes. Global Housing Foundation is currently building new houses in Central America and has plans to build in Latin America and Africa in the coming years.
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