TCU students and alumni got out their hard hats, paintbrushes and duct tape this weekend during the “Act! Speak! Build! Week” campaign hosted by TCU Habitat for Humanity.

“Act! Speak! Build! Week,” a campaign to promote poverty housing, allowed student volunteers to advocate for decent, affordable shelter through fundraising, speaking events and housing renovation.

Lizzy Do, junior biology major and vice-president of strategic affairs of TCU Habitat for Humanity, said she organized the “Act! Speak! Build! Week” to make the TCU campus aware of the organization’s mission and what issues they address, such as poverty housing.

The TCU Habitat for Humanity mission statement is “to educate, to advocate, to build and to raise funds to end poverty housing and homelessness.” This weekend, according to Do, the organization did just that.

Minor exterior repairs like replacing door hinges, fixing broken windows and applying fresh coats of paint were just a few of the home improvements made by Do and a group of Horned Frogs.

“Habitat [for Humanity] is a service that is more hands on and ultimately you see your results right away,” Do said. “For example, this morning the house was green and already it’s white.”

Affordable housing projects, like the one renovated by TCU students this past weekend, is one of the many efforts to raise awareness of the homeless situation in the area.

According to the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition, of the 281 homeless in Tarrant County, 247 were located in the city of Fort Worth.

Jordan Mazurck, TCU graduate and youth representative of the national Habitat for Humanity organization, said that it was his experience as a member as well as president of the chapter that kept him involved after graduation.

“We take completely unskilled volunteers and we work with them to build houses for people without any money, basically,” Mazurck said. “[As a freshman in college], I knew I wanted to help people and what I liked about Habitat is they’re patient and they’re willing to teach you how to help through manual labor.”

Special events, like the “Cardboard City” held Sunday night in the Commons, provided students with a chance to construct shelters out of cardboard and duct tape.

Danny Rangel, senior finance major and treasurer of TCU Habitat for Humanity, said they were trying to create awareness for the homeless and how they are portrayed throughout society.

“It gives students a chance to see how difficult it is to construct something literally from scrap,” Rangel said. “Even as a team effort, they’ll see how hard it is to make a house.”

Once the makeshift houses were complete, students wrote facts about poverty housing in the DFW area on the exterior of the cardboard shelters.

For more information on TCU Habitat for Humanity and their upcoming projects in the DFW community, visit their OrgSync website.