Jan 04 2009
Jimmy Carter: Slum Lord?
I am not a fan of President Carter. I personally feel he is the worst US president in recent history, bar none. His single term really had little to show for it, except perhaps for the release of the hostages in Iran.
And as for his life after being defeated by Reagan, he has done very little to gain my even grudging approval. In all, I have very little to say positive about him. One of the few positives in my book was his support for Habitat for Humanity, the program that builds houses for low income people.
Not that HFH has not had its controversies, of course, but even if it is a liberal entitlement dream, it seemed to have some merit. Like the TV version, Extreme Home Makeover, the program cannot build houses for every deserving family, but it can help some people out. Every charity seems to face that conundrum.
But now one community is having a little QC problem where the homes are concerned, and it raises questions about the program. Are the houses they build safe and sound? Does volunteer labor in this case equate to lowest bidder problems?
Charity homes built by Hollywood start to crumble
RESIDENTS of a model housing estate bankrolled by Hollywood celebrities and hand-built by Jimmy Carter, the former US president, are complaining that it is falling apart.
Fairway Oaks was built on northern Florida wasteland by 10,000 volunteers, including Carter, in a record 17-day “blitz” organised by the charity Habitat for Humanity.
Eight years later it is better known for cockroaches, mildew and mysterious skin rashes.
Now…in fairness, this is a single housing tract of about 85 homes out of the claimed 300k houses built in 2000 communities world wide1, so this is hardly something that appears to be a large scale issue.
But the questions the story raises are good ones.
A forthcoming legal battle over Fairway Oaks threatens the reputation of a charity envied for the calibre of its celebrity supporters, who range from Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt to Colin Firth, Christian Bale and Helena Bonham Carter.
The case could challenge the bedrock philosophy behind Habitat for Humanity, claiming that using volunteers, rather than professional builders, is causing as many problems as it solves.
April Charney, a lawyer representing many of the 85 homeowners in Fairway Oaks, said she had no problems taking on Habitat for Humanity, despite its status as a “darling of liberal social activists”.
One of the issues seems an obvious one, and it is one that any home builder would have to face due to a lack of disclosure:
She said the charity should have told people that part of the estate had been built on a rubbish dump.
One man pulled up his floorboards to find rubbish 5ft deep under his kitchen. Other complaints include cracking walls and rotting door frames that let in rats and ants. Many residents have complained of mildew and mysterious skin rashes.
The trash complaint is a very valid one. Even if this is a small slice HFH’s pie, one would hope that integrity and professionalism (or even protection of their name and reputation) would demand they deal with it proactively.
Apparently not. A deeper look shows that this community shows this issues has been festering over a year and a half, and the core issues there back to the 90’s.
Habitat for Humanity’s Homes Faulted in Florida
When Habitat for Humanity built the Fairway Oaks development here seven years ago, Mary Zeigler thought, “This is a blessing.” In just 17 days, an army of 10,000 volunteers, including former President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter, built 85 low-cost houses, one of the nonprofit group’s biggest “blitz build” projects.
…
Seven years later, Ms. Zeigler is one of more than 50 Fairway Oaks homeowners who have problems with their houses and say they fear that the blitz construction was shoddy and that their land, adjacent to two former town dumps, is unstable or contaminated.
So, how extensive is it?
The Fairway Oaks owners took their complaints to Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, and of 56 who answered a survey for Legal Aid, 41 reported cracked concrete slabs, 22 had cracked walls and 48 said their houses were infested with insects or rodents, presumably because of the cracks. Others reported mold or mildew, nails popping out of plasterboard and other problems.
So, almost 50 out of 85 were having issue since mid 2007.
The Habitat for Humanity local affiliate, HabiJax, maintains that the land at Fairway Oaks is stable and that most problems there are housekeeping issues, not structural.
Most…it’s hard to dismiss cracked foundations, and other clear settling issues as housekeeping.
City inspectors this month examined six houses and found no violations. But in a vulnerable population, the perceptions have a life of their own. A project built with sweat equity and good will has had unintended consequences, and costs.
Jacksonville, in the northeast corner of the state, is a struggling former paper-mill town with one of the nation’s highest rates of home foreclosures. Rumors about contamination at the Fairway Oaks property began long before HabiJax got involved.
How long ago?
In the early 1990s the land held a blighted public housing complex, built on land that had been used, in isolated pockets, as a dump. After complaints by residents, the Environmental Protection Agency tested the soil for contamination. The E.P.A. concluded that the land was safe but noted that two buildings had been demolished because of soil settling, possibly caused by debris decomposing under the soil. A later soil test found elevated levels of arsenic, but the Florida Department of Health determined there was no significant health risk.
So here we see that in the 90s we had known soil settling due to garbage composition and elevated chemical compositions. And no, I am not very trusting of the EPA’s versions of safe.
Ronnie A. Ferguson, president of the Jacksonville Housing Authority, said the two buildings had been damaged by water runoff, not because of soil instability associated with buried debris.
Or instead we may have known water drainage issues. Good.
So the land was essentially a project that was too messed up for people to live in. What to do? Sell it to HFH for a song:
As the complex deteriorated, the housing authority offered the land to HabiJax for one dollar. For HabiJax, the land fit their mission, said Mary Kay O’Rourke, the HabiJax president. The project would remove a public blight and replace tax-subsidized housing with homes for people who could not otherwise afford them.
Sounds great, looks good on paper.
The first residents, mostly single women who had never owned homes, bought in for $500 down, 300 hours of sweat equity, and no-interest mortgages of around $45,000 to $61,000. Monthly payments, including insurance, are generally less than $300. HabiJax ran bus tours to show off the new community.
With the high celeb content and blitz aspect, this had to be a high profile showcase. Wonder if they run tours today?
So, how did they respond?
But when homeowners started having problems, several of them said the organization was aloof and unresponsive. In 2005, the cracks in one foundation became so severe that the house had to be lifted and settled on piers. Engineers hired by HabiJax found six feet of debris buried under the soil.
Which matches the more recent accounts.
Before October 2005, few knew how widely their complaints were shared. Then, Shirley Dempsey, president of the homeowners association, said she began having a series of dreams that she said were religious visions, leading her to discover problems in her house and others. Most had the same complaints: cracks in the slabs and walls, rotting door frames, leaky plumbing. Many residents had developed rashes.
…
In April, HabiJax officials asked residents to report problems. Of 36 responses, she said, workers have resolved 25 and are “working on the others.”
Even on the blitz construction schedule, she said, all work was supervised by licensed builders and then fully inspected. Professionals — not volunteers — handled the wiring, plumbing, heating, air conditioning and structural work, she said.
“These homeowners have been pulling up carpeting and noticing cracks” in their concrete slabs, Ms. O’Rourke said, taking care to praise many for their work maintaining their homes. But she said, “There’s an innocence when you go into home ownership for the first time. There’s been attention recently because of the scares, people telling them, if you have a crack, it’s a problem.”
Sometimes it is.
Even some of the homeowners with complaints expressed ambivalence. “I’m not speaking bad about HabiJax,” said Deanna Norris, 42, who complained about cracks and bugs in her house and worried that mold, mildew or soil contamination was contributing to her 5-year-old daughter’s chronic health problems. “It’s a good program for poor single people like me. But when things go bad, I just want them to do something about it.”
For Iris McCloud Moody, who moved to her four-bedroom house from a $500 rental apartment in public housing, assurances from HabiJax provided no comfort. In 2005, she said, the back of her house started to sink, making her feel as if she was walking downhill. Engineers hired by HabiJax lifted the back on hydraulic beams and resettled it on buried piers; the work has a 20-year warranty.
But even after the repair, Ms. Moody said, she hears constant cracking sounds, and fears the house will fall on her daughter and two sons. HabiJax has declined her request for relocation, she said. “This was my first house,” she said. “I thought it was going to be the American dream.”
She added, “The warranty’s going to run out. I’m worried that I can’t sell it. Or just say, I’m leaving it to the kids, and it’s falling apart.”
The long term prospects for this community are not good, mostly because Habitat apparently did not do its homework.
It seems that the city was eager to get get rid of an expensive problem and that Habitat took it out of altruistic notions. But in their hurry to make this a poster child for social entitlement, they may have bitten off more than they can chew.
Now they face a community built on shifting ground and no one apparently wants to deal with the fact that building on a garbage dump may not be a good idea.
So is this an indictment of HFH? Not really…depending on how they respond.
HFH has a responsibility to clean up their mess. The main organization should get involved and fix the problem.
Consider that they have revenues of more than 232 million, they can afford to make sure that they are actually building the quality, safe homes that they claim they do.
If nothing else, maybe Jimmy Carter and his Hollywood friends have some concerns about being associated to such workmanship.
Trackposted to Michelle Malkin, Sister Toldjah, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, and The Pink Flamingo, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
