$500 habitats for humanity

Lately I have been doing a little volunteer building here in Kansas City, Kansas, for Kaw Valley Habitat for Humanity . Although the lots and some materials are donated or highly subsidized, we don't skimp; the homes we are building are standard entry-level homes. Nationwide they cost an average of $59,324 and as such we are not able to deliver them to the poorest and most needy of citizens.

The scarcity of affordable homes can be understood as partly an artificial scarcity, a side effect of regulations we have enacted. If building codes and municipal restrictions on camping were liberalized, it would become easier to provide housing at every price point. Can this be done, and should it be done? Economics suggests, and Habitat believes, that ownership fosters stewardship and permanence and, in turn, stability and safety. After all, "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

As an argument for cities to relax regulations, nothing is better than an actual success story (article, "Homeless in Portland"). See Dignity Village , which organized itself as a nonprofit and obtained a 10-year lease from the city of Portland, Oregon. Possessing the lease enables individual investment in durable structures, making possible the construction of $500 cabins .

No, $500 homes are not ideal, nor would $5,000 ones be. But do we prohibit the construction of $50,000 homes just because $200,000 homes can be safer and more comfortable? I once worked for several months building premium homes with handmade hardwood trim, and I can testify that these are nice homes and worth the price to those who can afford them. But if we think that everyone should have a Lexus ideally, do we outlaw lesser makes?

Surely there should be a wide range of options in between homeless shelters and sidewalks at one price point, and Habitat for Humanity's conventional homes at another. Are people with little hope of improving their little situation motivated to commit themselves to the large efforts required to reap large gains? If we aren't sure, we should not outlaw the small incremental steps .

Building codes and restrictions on camping were enacted for specific reasons which must be acknowledged. Yet these concerns must be balanced with all others. If, arguably, such regulations impede the production of affordable housing, then the regulations must be counted among the causes of homelessness. Is this cost worth the benefits of strict regulation? Arguably, exceptions must be made, and if so, legal precedents should be established.

In the article "Homeless in Portland" notice the reference to straw-bale homes. Because this construction method (the stacked bales are covered in stucco) can produce fine homes of superior insulative value, it is admired by home buyers at all levels of wealth. Traditional materials such as straw, adobe and cob are also "dirt cheap," extremely durable, non-toxic, renewable, thermally efficient, and amenable to construction by amateurs. Because a straw-bale home is relatively easy for amateurs to build , it is also well-suited to volunteer labor by friends and neighbors after the fashion of "barn raisings." When neighbors work together to build and maintain their own homes and neighborhood, they and their communities grow stronger. (See architect Christopher Alexander 's excellent book A Pattern Language.)

Less-costly homes may also entice some at higher levels of income, freeing them to use more of their resources to help others. This interests me personally and may interest other Habitat for Humanity volunteers. [Addendum 4-Jan-06: I think that living with someome, and in the same manner as they do, is the best way to know them and their needs. Thanks to whom I met 3-Jan-06.]

I would like to see the citizens of my city make the decisions to enable low-income citizens to increase their investment gradually from $5 winter coats to $50 tents and $500 and $5000 homes. These natural first rungs of home ownership would complement, and function as "baby steps" toward, that $50,000 rung which Habitat has chiefly been engaged in building. I intend to work toward the legal enablement of communities like Dignity Village in my city, and if given an opportunity I would love to help build a $500 "habitat for humanity."

Read more at http://www.outofthedoorways.org/