I recently had the privilege in showing six visitors from Third Presbyterian’s sister church in Nairobi, Kenya, Habitat’s work in the JOSANA neighborhood. One of the questions they asked, which is one asked by others in the Rochester community, is why we don’t rehab houses?
We were on Campbell Street where there are a number of boarded up houses and one in particular caught the eye of our visitors. It was across the street from the Whitney/Campbell parking lot and had the tell-tale brown boards covering the windows and doors—an indication that the structure was owned by the city through foreclosure. On the surface it look like a solid structure, but the more I looked it became clear that this was a building that had probably been a store with an adjacent house that had been converted to three or four apartments. The paint was peeling, the chimney stacks unstable, and the roof in poor condition.
Historically, the neighborhoods where Habitat builds were home to waves of immigrants. These were working class neighborhood—some predominantly Jewish, others Italian, Polish, or Irish. As a progressive city, Rochester was the site of a number of settlement houses, established to in the early 1900s to support, educate, and acculturate immigrants to the American Way. The Lewis Street Settlement House (alas no more) served a large Italian population, and before its closing its clientele was mostly Hispanic. The Charles Settlement House (located on Jay Street) served Dutchtown.
As you might expect houses and apartments were built to accommodate the needs and income of the population. Hence, in many of our neighborhoods there are a profusion of workman’s cottages (narrow, shotgun structures on one or one and a half floors), and multi-family buildings. While there were larger houses, once their owners moved to greener pastures (usually the inner suburbs) these were sold and converted to multifamily apartments to be occupied by the last wave of settlers to Rochester—African-Americans and Latinos.
Logic dictates that there is a ‘life’ to any structure, depending on its design, quality of construction, and materials used. Generally, the houses in our neighborhoods have a life of about 100 years—some hastened by lack of upgrades and poor or no maintenance. Given when these structures were built (and add-on to) exterior walls may have asbestos based shingles or lead based paint. The interiors are likely to have asbestos in the plaster (used as sound and fire proofing) and lead paint. If deterioration occurs then the interior will have lead/asbestos dust and the surrounding land will be contaminated with paint and shingle chips. Older houses will usually have outdated electrical, heating and plumbing systems. Energy use will be high due to old windows and doors and lack of insulation.
The nature of the foreclosure process usually means a structure will be vacant for several years and it is likely that the basement will experience water intrusion, mold build up, and cracking through the winter’s freeze/thaw cycle. In addition, vacant houses are usually the target of vandalism. It is probable that copper piping will have been stolen and if there happens to be metal siding that too will find its way to the scrap metal dealer.
Having painted a bleak picture of the state of vacant properties in our neighborhoods what is the cost to rehab a property to bring it to Habitat standards? Over the years we have worked on several such properties. But even with volunteer labor, the expertise of our Hammer and Saw crews, and in-kind and discounted materials, the costs are astronomical. In fact, rehabbing a modest three bedroom house will take much longer than a new build (thus high supervisor costs) and involve extensive deconstruction. We‘ve learned to expect the unexpected—the electrical and plumbing systems can be hard to access and bathrooms often have non-standard fixtures.
However, there are cases where Habitat does accept donation houses and these provide a great option for families who like the idea of living in an older house with its different features from our standard new design. These are properties that have not stood vacant or been foreclosed. Rather these houses tend to be in more stable, slightly more affluent neighborhoods and because of life circumstance an owner will decide the time is right to transfer a house full of family memories to Habitat so another family can enjoy the home that was so important to them.
I remember a case where an elderly homeowner had lived all her married life in her home, but now with the advice of her grown children felt it time to move to an assisted living situation. This particular house had chestnut trim, larger rooms and a garage. While we needed to upgrade the mechanicals, the house was solid and easy to renovate. In another case a Kodak engineer had bought a property for his daughter and over the years had lovingly restored it, including the hardwood trim and floors to its former glory. Again, life circumstance meant the house had to be either sold or donated, and ultimately the owner felt that a Habitat family would appreciate and benefit from a beautiful home.
Every time we are offered a house we take a close look at it to determine the cost to rehab it to our standards. Unfortunately, in most cases we have to decline the offer, but occasionally we are offered a gem of a house, that we know can become a wonderful housing option for one of our families. I wished we had more!
