Jimmy Carter (AP)
Eight years ago, former President Jimmy Carter joined 10,000 Habitat for Humanity volunteers to build new homes for impoverished families on the Florida coast. It was part of a record-breaking 17-day construction “blitz” complete with celebrity photo-ops. The local Habitat for Humanity chapter later organized bus tours to show off the new showcase neighborhood.
Now, in a development sure to embarrass Nobel Peace Prize laureate Carter and his widely admired charity, a recent investigation by the Times of London revealed that the Fairway Oaks housing development is “better known for cockroaches, mildew and mysterious skin rashes.”
April Charney is a lawyer representing many of the 85 homeowners in Fairway Oaks who are now suing Habitat for Humanity. The charity, she told the Times, failed to tell residents that their new homes were built on a reclaimed garbage dump.
Some residents blame their health problems on the Fairway Oaks location, and their crumbling homes on Habitat for Humanity’s philosophy of using volunteers as construction workers, rather than experienced, licensed professionals.
“The intentions are good,” Charney told the Times, “but when the politicians and big-shot stars have left we’re stuck with the consequences. This house looks pretty but inside it either stinks or sweats.”
Other residents place blame elsewhere, saying their neighbors are inexperienced first-time buyers who put $500 down, reportedly invested 300 hours of “sweat equity” and now enjoy no-interest mortgages with monthly payments of only $300. However, these low income single moms are accustomed to living in superintended apartments, who likely didn’t realize that homes require regular, often expensive, maintenance. Homes built on the Florida coastline, for example, are especially prone to mold and mildew caused by high humidity.
Diennal Fields, 51, said many of her neighbors apparently did not know how to look after their homes: “It’s simple stuff: if there is mildew, don’t get a lawyer, get a bottle of bleach.”
In fact, complaints were few until the president of the homeowners association, Shirley Dempsey, “said she began having a series of dreams that she said were religious visions, leading her to discover problems in her house” and her neighbors.
Habitat for Humanity’s problems seem to date back to 2005, when the organization’s founder, Millard Fuller, was dismissed by the board of directors following sexual harrassment accusations by former Habitat employees.
Fuller and a legion of supporters, including Jimmy Carter, denied the allegations and worked to overturn the decision. In a confidential letter to the board, after Carter warned that a “national scandal” could ensue if Fuller was relieved of his duties as cheif executive.
In the March 26, 1990, letter, Carter explained that in the Southern culture that he and Fuller shared, physical displays of affection were commonplace. He came to realize, however, that such gestures were not universally welcomed, citing his dedication of the John F. Kennedy Library in 1979, when former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had “visibly flinched” at his attempt to hug her.
Despite Carter’s warnings, the dreaded “national scandal” failed to materialize and Habitat for Humanity’s reputation remained largely untarnished. Stories of Habitat for Humanity homes burning down (with some blaming faulty wiring) haven’t dented the built up equity of good will the charity has built up since the 1970s. Neither have incidents of financial malfesence.
In fact, HUD Secretary Steve Preston announced on December 17 that $13 million in federal funds would be allocated to Habitat for Humanity International to build affordable housing across the country.
Comments
Those giving interest free "affordable" houses to people who think it is an "entitlement" of being poor shouldn't be surprised that the recipients also feel the up-keep, up-grades, repairs and neighbourhood maintenance are also entitlements (i.e. someone else's responsibility...the builder's maybe?)
The great thing about Republican presidents is that when they're done, they just go back to their ranches and stop bothering everyone.
"Carter explained that in ... Southern Culture... physical displays of affection were commonplace."
Bill Clinton was a very misunderstood man.
I've been a yankee for too long, y'all.
Carter should shut up and build furniture. He is a disgrace to past Presidents.
Typical reaction from a bunch of parasitic ingrates who have been coddled their whole lives. While I'm certainly no fan of JC as a president, he seems to be a very decent man. As a matter of fact he was probably too decent for DC. I mean how mean and insensitive can you be, you build someone a home, expect them to pay a whopping $300-a-month and then you have the audacity to expect them to maintain these homes.
Some facts are not correct in this story - Kathy, send your mailing address if you are interested in the full story.
Jimmy Carter: One of the select man in History with the Midas touch for disaster. Congrats Kathy you deserve it.
It seems that the Republican's want to have less than bright Presidents. Reagan, Bush Jr.--good examples. Jimmy Carter was given a terrible mess by Nixon and Ford. High inflation and war in the Middle East. Carter's only downfall was his attempt to correct the errors of the previous 10-15 years.
Byron, so it is always someone else's fault? Do you remember the gas lines? Do you remember trying to buy a house then? 12 - 15% mortgage rates? Even and Odd days to buy gas?
Sending just a few helicopters to rescue 50 some people in Iran.
Talk of a failed president!
In my professional life I oversaw the entitlements for a Habitat for Humanity house. The wife was so excited and seemed so grateful. Not long after the house was complete, the husband got his work buddies to pour a fancy colored and stamped concrete driveway, and they constructed a brick and wrought iron wall along the front of the house. Then they cemented the entire back yard. Not much later the very nice and usable front porch I insisted Habitat include in the design was "enclosed" using fiberglass panels and a blue tarp. They began storing work equipment on the front lawn, leaning wood again the garage, and stacking garbage on the side yard.
I would drive by to check on the house because it was supposed to be such an asset to the neighborhood; filling in a vacant lot an all, and each time I saw the house it was worse. The family eventually defaulted on the very simple
They gave them a house, but failed to give them in instruction and guidance in middle class living and responsibilities. I'm sure Carter is well meaning, but like many naive liberals he seems to think that all you need to do is change a person's physical circumstances and the rest will fall in place, which is a very flawed materialist view of the world.
The last sentence of the second paragraph below should say: The family eventually defaulted on the mortgage.
Millard Fuller once said something like this: If you no trouble with the families, you picked the wrong families.
Ingrates? Few and far between, but you can find them if that is what you are looking for.
There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.
(Leonard Cohen)
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure—try to please everybody.
(Herbert Bayard Swope)
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