Sunday, January 04, 2009

Jimmah Carter May Not Be All That Good As A Carpenter

It appears that our former president, Jimmah Carter and the Habitat For Humanity house building organization he has worked for has a problem at one of their housing projects.
In this article from the Times of London, the Fairway Oaks development in Northern Florida has become the kind of housing that one would find in a public housing project.
According to the Times article, the housing is cockroach infested, full of mildew and many of the residents are becoming victims of mysterious skin rashes.
Oh, by the way, the housing was built on wasteland. We used to call it a dump.
Now, I believe that Habitat For Humanity is a very good organization and the way that they do what they do is a good thing. By making the potential home owners actually participate in the building process makes them feel more that it will be theirs to be responsible for. It is certainly better than the Countrywide, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fiasco that have led to our current economic slump.
But, who thought that it would be a good idea to build 85 houses on a dump? Did anyone kind of any research?
Here is a paragraph from the Times article:

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.

Five feet of trash? Under the kitchen? Again, one has to ask whether anyone bothered to let the potential homeowners know that their future home was being built on a dump?
What makes this an issue is the fact that the Hollywood left trumpeted their involvement in financing and helping build the houses. One of those 10,000 people helping along the way was the former president, Jimmah.
So, these people wanting to put a salve on their celbutard status, just did what made them feel good and did not bother to make sure that where they were building would be safe for the future homeowners. And the most famous face of Habitat us Jimmah. How many times have we seen him online, in a newspaper, a magazine or on television doing some of the work?
So, what is being done to remedy the situation?
Well, it appears that Habitat For Humanity is being taken to court for their trouble.
Rather than simply admitting that the housing was flawed and work with the people on what can be done, they would rather go to court.
And that brings us to this question.
Will this put a rusty nail in the good work that Habitat has done over the years?
Of course the longer that this goes on in the legal system, the more negativity this brings on Habitat. And because of the sheer size of this project, 85 homes completed in 17 days, it may be a case that they cut off more than they could chew.
Habitat For Humanity needs to settle this legal battle now so that they can move on and do more good work. And, part of doing that good work is total transparency. They did have a legal and moral obligation to let the future homeowners know all about the fact that they were building the houses on a dump.
Otherwise, Habitat For Humanity looks like a very bad organization. And, one more thing that Jimmah Carter turned from gold to trash.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't you find it suspect that the homeowner, who most likely contributed to the building of his home, only noticed the trash after he moved in?

The other defects (rotting wood, mold, infestation) are, however, often connected with shoddy workmanship, poor site selection or poor preparation of the site.