RECENT COMMENTS
Eric S. Huffstutler on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
Eric S. Huffstutler on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
Yvette Cannon on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
crd on Power Outage on the Hill
Seeking volunteers to help at Pillars at Oakmont
06/01/2011 6:15 AM by John M
Are you handy with a paintbrush? Got experience putting in insulation? We want you! Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity is in need of volunteers June 1st-4th to work on The Pillars at Oakmont (located at 33rd and T Streets in Church Hill) and our Reynolds Road home rehab (located in eastern Henrico). Sign up by calling 804-232-7001 or email Julie Gordon at julie@richmondhabitat.org. Hope to see you out on site!
TAGGED: Pillars at Oakmont
This organization deserves our help! Come on Church Hill neighbors- get involved and offer some of your time.
“Deserves” our help? Why? They already have grants.(tax). This project is two years over due. Can anyone say “mismanagement”?
http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/harried-habitat-director-leaves-nonprofit-in-limbo/Content?oid=1455136
I think the help they want is in the form of volunteer labor, not money. If you read the article, it sounds like the project over-reached not because of money problems but instead because highly skilled home construction workers were needed to complete the houses, which is hard to find within a volunteer workforce.
Actually, Leisha LaRiviere said at an affordable housing conference that one of the major misconceptions about Habitat homes were that they were not well constructed due to volunteer labor. She explained that skilled laborers were paid to do their jobs (hence one reason for the $4 million dollar price tag), so the housing was of “excellent” craftmanship.
Fifteen houses for $8 million dollars? Sorry. Including lot costs, clearing, and infrastructure, that is some serious money for homes of this type.
*Sorry, EIGHT million, not four
*crap…FOUR…not EIGHT
Must…get…sleep
That’s $266,666 if it’s $4 million/home to build. Double what it would usually take.
Regardless of their overruns, the goal is to improve the neighborhood. I hope the turnout is good.
“We’re going to complete the nine units, and then we have to pursue funding for additional house sponsors.”
They are going to complete only NINE homes. Now try a half a million dollars cost per house. And they are out of money. That’s a helluva an overrun. Didn’t I mention mismanagement?
Also, attached homes are not more expensive to build. No “special labor skills” are needed. Only fire rated sheet rock. In fact, in this example, were all fifteen homes built, you would have thirteen shared inside walls. That cuts cost, not increases them.
$133,000 should be the sell price of an affordable home, not the cost. And yes, it can be done. Without government grants.