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Our Mission to Save the Lives of Youth & Their Families in Distress
Founded in 1968, the House of Umoja (HOU) was officially organized in 1970 as a communication and youth development agency. At that time gang warfare was a horrendous problem and governmental authorities and community agencies were struggling to cope with the problem. Upon discovering that one of her six sons had joined a gang, Queen Mother Falaka Fattah and her husband, David Fattah took the bold step of inviting the gang to become a part of the family. With a promise to keep them alive and out of jail, the Fattah home became the House of Umoja Boystown, and initially operated for three (3) years without public or private support. Since then DHS has funded the residential program from 1972 to present.
Since its inception, the House of Umoja has been home to over 3,000 teenage boys and has been recognized by three presidents, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
Living in society characterized by spiraling inflation and governmental cutbacks to social service agencies. It soon became evident that the House of Umoja could not rely solely upon others to address the problems of unemployment, inadequate job training and education. With this in mind, the House of Umoja from 1979 to 1985 provided on-site job training, employment and entrepreneurial programs to residents and neighborhood youth and adults.House of Umoja Inc. © 2009, All Rights Reserved