Jimmy Carter: saint or slumlord?

January 13, 10:28 AMConservative Politics ExaminerKathy Shaidle

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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.