habitat

Had you asked me a couple of years ago what I thought about Habitat for Humanity, I would have told you that it's a great organization doing great things. Now I'm starting to wonder if things could be done a little differently. Why build houses when there are so many houses sitting empty right now? Wouldn't buying some of the empty houses on the market do more for the economy? I understand that Habitat doesn't really pay for labor because of volunteers, and therefore can build houses pretty cheaply, but it just doesn't seem quite right to use up a whole bunch of resources to build new houses for the homeless (or people with less than adequate housing), when so many houses are sitting empty. What do you think?