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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Architecture -> Habitat for Humanity
 Habitat for Humanity
By Niki Hayden
At Front Range Living, we write about historic homes, modern retro
marvels, quaint cottages and cozy cabins. Our houses are modest or grand, but
each comes with a compelling story. A house, after all, is the architecture we
wrap around us and call home. It was just a matter of time before approaching
the Habitat for Humanity organization. Providing decent housing for over 175,000
families since 1976, Habitat for Humanity nestles homes all around us. Often we
don’t notice them. They don’t stand out. That’s the point.
Habitat for Humanity architects and builders strive to fit their homes into
the local community. Often, that means navigating vastly different rules and
regulations from coast to coast as they create homes that last.
 On a cloudless Colorado day, a group of pastors have gathered to build a
children’s playground in the middle of Emerald Hill in Broomfield. The 14
duplex homes form a loose circle and the playground will be the heart and soul
of the community. Every family can look out their front door to watch the
children play.
In back, says Jeanne Deschner, chair of the Flatirons Habitat board, are
million dollar views. "You might have to overlook those warehouses
below," she says, waving them away with a sweep of her arm, for Emerald
Hill sits on a bluff. "But look at those mountains beyond," she says
with emphasis.
"This is what I like best about these homes," a pastor echoes.
"Everyone will have a view." He recently moved from Florida to
Colorado and says he went through Hurricane Andrew. The Habitat for Humanity
homes he helped build withstood the storm. "All those volunteers
over-nailing," he says with a grin, must have been the reason.
 Quality, not quantity, is the value most prized in Habitat homes. Sturdy
framing, careful grouting, substantial stairs, and polished kitchen cabinets—everything
is built to last. The cabinets are made in a minimum-security prison in Canon
City, Jeanne says. And they’re a boon for both. The convicts are learning a
skill and put their best into their work. Habitat gets quality goods at a
bargain price.
Rich New, an architect based in Boulder, served on the Flatirons board for
eight years. Before that he worked on a similar board in southern California,
and on a Habitat community in Florida. He says the design of the Emerald Hill
collection of duplexes was based upon co-housing ideas, where the sense of
building community is as important as the sturdy architecture.
"Connectivity is a buzzword now," he says, "the central area as a
kid’s play area was so they wouldn’t have to cross a street."
Designing for Habitat compels the architect to use all the tricks of the
trade, Rick says. There’s no splurging on luxury materials, yet the building
must come up to code. Consideration is given to the reality that volunteers must
build the house. That means that odd details, elaborate rooflines or fancy
masonry, may be ruled out. Still the challenge is there, enough to entice
architects to try their hand at a Habitat design. "Designing affordable
housing is much more challenging," Rick says, than many luxury homes,
"and tests your skills. Especially Emerald Hill, with all that green
space." Habitat homes, he says, are generally well maintained, often more
so than the surrounding neighborhoods. "It’s not a hand-out," he
says, "and we’d like the families to pass down the homes to their
children."
 On this day, the frames for the playground equipment are spread on the
ground. Beams of highly polished wood with tiny swing seats dangle from chains.
Alas, there are no instructions. The pastors puzzle over the timbers and finally
one says, "It’s a God thing. We have to approach it with faith."
Habitat for Humanity is a Christian organization and one that relies on sweat
from both the future homeowners and congregations in each region. But,
interfaith groups often gather to contribute to practical needs that transcend
every faith. No prospective homeowner faces discrimination. And these pastors,
regardless of the divisions among their denominations, are satisfying deeply
held convictions. Struggling families deserve modest, healthy shelters, they
say.
Emerald Hill is a cluster of cottages with careful thought put into the site
of each. That balance is hard won. Bill Winscott, the executive director of the
Flatirons Habitat, says that they have little control over many homes. There is
a national Habitat blueprint of a living and dining room, kitchen, three
bedrooms and one bath. Even houses with up to five bedrooms have only one bath.
The home includes a washer and dryer, but not a dishwasher or garbage disposal,
basement or garage.
 Even so, the details of each home or development differ. Emerald Hill, for
example, is the first Habitat development in Colorado to have a homeowner’s
association. That’s because it’s required in Broomfield. "At 14 homes,
this is not the largest we’ve ever done here but the first time we’ve had a
homeowners association of our own," he says. "It was a process with
the city where they identified potential land areas. We are still on the early
stages, with just two homeowners moved in. None of these homes are really
identical. There are differences in the number of bedrooms and slight
configurations. We have to be flexible," he says.
For example, bedrooms are built below ground to cut down on train noise. But
Jeanne notes that the basement bedrooms are cooler in the summer, too. And while
today’s workers are off-duty pastors, electrical and plumbing work requires
professionals. Habitat trains their volunteer labor for framing and finishing
while a construction supervisor oversees any tricky details.
 Although you might think that Habitat is connected to local, regional or
federal government agencies, that’s not the case. Habitat must buy the land.
They can accept some government grants for land or infrastructure like roads.
But they will not accept government money for the structure and regularly raise
money. Families qualify for a no- interest mortgage. Those who move into these
homes also will receive financial training as well as classes in simple home
repairs. Becoming a homeowner is new for most and Habitat wants each family to
understand the complexities of how a mortgage works and how to fix a dripping
faucet.
Habitat adheres to guidelines for family income, which is about 20 to 40
percent of the average family income in the area. Boulder Valley has one of the
highest income levels in the country, which makes a typical family income of
$25, 000 about right where the county average is $80,000. Interesting enough, it’s
often not easy to find families that fit so neatly into their guidelines.
Some families simply are too poor to quality for Habitat. Those are families
they send to social services. "Of the people that qualify, we don’t turn
a lot away. Sometimes we have a hard time meeting our quotas. We get some people
who apply who don’t meet the criteria, usually income. They may go to other
places; we may refer them to sources of help so that they eventually qualify for
a Habitat house," he says.
 The requirement for homeowners to put ‘sweat equity’ into their homes
means that they devote hours, days and weeks to building their homes, or helping
with another’s home. This requirement often has screened out potential buyers
in wheelchairs. Bill is quick to point out that they are working around this
obstacle by finding new ways that handicapped owners can help without having to
heave bricks.
"We have taken people out of deplorable conditions," Bill says,
often a housing situation in which families are separated, half the family
living with friends, the other half living with relatives. And while single
mothers head the bulk of the nationwide Habitat families, the Emerald Hill
project includes immigrants from Laos, refugees from the Vietnam War, who have
been living in Colorado for 20 years. Two Hmong families are poised to move into
new homes and the pastor from a Hmong Baptist church is hammering nearby.
Habitat has brought affordable housing a long way from the nightmarish
government projects that housed thousands in dehumanizing developments. Emerald
Hill could qualify for the chic of cottage living that springs from lifestyle
magazines. Architecture, too, has embraced style that allows for neighborliness
rather than estrangement that big box apartment complexes imply.
And, sometimes, when it comes to volunteer labor, prayers are answered.
"I’ve found the instructions," one worker yells to the perplexed
pastors, who already are fitting the playground frames together as best they
can. Habitat is one example that decent housing can be delivered on time and on
budget, when well-intentioned people summon their skills, no matter how
rudimentary they may be. By the end of the day, Emerald Hill will be one step
closer to completion, and million dollar views will become affordable to 14
families.
Helpful websites:
www.flatironshabitat.org for the Broomfield and Boulder Valley offices.
www.habitat.org for the national and international site. Also, valuable for
finding the closest Habitat in your area.
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