Should he take zakaah to build himself a house?
Question

                I work for a low salary, praise be to Allaah and I support my family which is composed of six people. Now I am threatened with being laid off because my contract is ending. I send most of my salary to my family and I keep very little for my own needs. Now my family is going to leave the house they live in because it does not belong to them; it has been inherited and its owners want to sell it.

I have a piece of land and I started to build on it but I did not complete it. I asked my colleagues at work to help me and they agreed to help me finish construction so my family can live in it, knowing that they would have to rent because they are going to be evicted soon which will increase my financial burdens, because I cannot afford to pay the rent and their living expenses at the same time, and they do not have any other breadwinner but me. Is it permissible to accept my colleagues’ help on the basis that it is zakaah?.
Praise be to Allah.Accommodation is one of the 
    basic needs which no one can do without. This need may be met by buying a 
    house or building it or renting it. There is nothing wrong with giving 
    zakaah to someone who owns land but cannot afford to build on it. He comes 
    under the general heading of poor and needy who are among those to whom 
    zakaah may be given, as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): 
“As-Sadaqaat (here it 
    means Zakaah) are only for the Fuqaraa’ (poor), and Al‑Masaakeen (the poor) 
    and those employed to collect (the funds); and to attract the hearts of 
    those who have been inclined (towards Islam); and to free the captives; and 
    for those in debt; and for Allaah’s Cause (i.e. for Mujaahidoon — those 
    fighting in a holy battle), and for the wayfarer (a traveller who is cut off 
    from everything); a duty imposed by Allaah. And Allaah is All-Knower, 
    All-Wise”
[al-Tawbah 9:60]
It says in Badaa’i’ 
    al-Sanaa’i’ (2/48): There is nothing wrong with giving zakaah to one who 
    has a house, furnishings, a servant, a horse, a weapon, clothing and books 
    of knowledge, if he is one of the people’s of knowledge, but if he has more 
    than that, to a value of two hundred dirhams, it is haraam for him to take 
    zakaah, because these things are necessities of life that a person cannot do 
    without. End quote. 
If this applies to one who 
    has accommodation and furnishings but does not have enough to live on, then 
    one who does not have these basic necessities is even more entitled to 
    zakaah. 
Abu ‘Ubayd al-Qaasim ibn 
    Salaam said in his book (p. 750) that if a man sees that the family of a 
    righteous Muslim are poor and needy, and he is wealthy, but they do not have 
    a house to give them shelter, and he buys a house with the zakaah of his 
    wealth to protect them from the cold of winter and the heat of the sun, and 
    gives that from the zakaah of his wealth, then he will be doing an 
    obligatory duty and he will be doing a good deed. End quote. 
See: Ahbaath Fiqhiyyah 
    fi Qadaaya al-Zakaah al-Mu’aasirah (1/369). 
 If a poor person does not 
    have accommodation or furnishings, it is permissible to buy what he needs 
    from zakaah funds. End quote. 
Based on this, there is 
    nothing wrong with your accepting help from your colleagues on the basis 
    that this is zakaah. 
And Allaah knows best.