Habitat for Humanity??s Homes Faulted in Florida
New York Times
June 17, 2007
Habitat for Humanity??s Homes Faulted in Florida
By JOHN LELAND
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ?? 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.
??I could have something to call mine,? recalled Ms. Zeigler, now 63, sitting in the coolness of her house??s central air conditioning. In a lifetime of work, she had never been able to afford her own home.
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.
??My pride is gone,? Ms. Zeigler said, pointing to cracks in her house??s ceiling and its concrete slab foundation. ??I??ve got a 25-year mortgage, and I??ve got stuff that needs to be addressed or I??m just paying my mortgage in vain, because I won??t have a house in 25 years because it will be falling apart.?
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. 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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. April Charney, a Legal Aid lawyer representing the homeowners, said HabiJax had an obligation to tell residents that part of the development??s land had previously been used as a garbage dump.
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.
On a recent afternoon, Ms. Dempsey, 52, sat in her living room amid artwork commemorating the accomplishments of African-Americans. Her bare concrete floor had a crack running the width of the house, wide enough to insert quarters at three places. She pointed to poorly hung doors, cracked walls, nails popping through plasterboard and spots that she said were mold.
??They let us down,? said Ms. Dempsey, who earns $10.50 an hour at a nearby mall and pays $295 a month for her mortgage and homeowner??s insurance. ??They was going to let us live out here and not say anything.?
Ms. O??Rourke disputes this. 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.?
Houses in the development have recently sold for more than $90,000, demonstrating that their values are rising, not falling, she said.
About the residents?? concerns of soil contamination, she said, ??I don??t know how you change people??s opinions.?
Some residents dismiss their neighbors?? complaints, attributing them to poor maintenance by first-time homeowners. ??Lots of problems, people can take care of themselves,? said Dinelle Fields, 51. ??Get a bleach bottle,? she said, referring to complaints about mildew.
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.?
Habitat for Humanity??s Homes Faulted in Florida - New York Times
