Builders to ‘blitz’ through 7 homes in 7 days

Local homebuilders donate time to Habitat for Humanity project

By Adam Playford

Julian Williams can't be a foster parent, no matter how much he wants to.

His home just isn't big enough.

He lives in the Morreene West apartment complex, and his place only has one bedroom.

But soon, that will change.

By Saturday, June 18, his new, three-bedroom house on Gattis Street should be complete. By mid-July, he should be able to move in.

That's despite the fact that work hasn't even started yet.

This Saturday, Habitat for Humanity of Durham and the Home Builders Association of Durham and Orange Counties will launch a "Home Builders Blitz." Seven local homebuilders will build seven houses in seven days.

One of those will be Williams'.

"[There's] nothing like having your own place," he said.

Williams, 46, works as a manufacturing associate at BioGen Idec, a pharmaceutical company in Research Triangle Park. He hopes to start a family one day.

"But even if not, it's a new beginning," he said.

Regardless, he'll be able to become a foster parent.

"I'm just going to try to let it be a blessing, not only for me but for everybody," Williams said.

The Home Builders Blitz concept differs from other Habitat projects that build homes just as quickly.

In most Habitat projects, a sponsor donates $50,000 -- about half the money for a home -- and volunteers build it, said Mitzi Viola, director of development for Habitat for Humanity of Durham.

In a Home Builders Blitz, the sponsors themselves are homebuilders. They do the construction for free and negotiate with subcontractors for free or reduced-price services, Viola said.

Saturday's effort is part of the West End Collaborative Project, which includes Habitat for Humanity, the Durham Community Land Trustees, the Self-Help Community Development Corp., and the South West Central Durham Quality of Life Project.

On Gattis Street, the project plans to build a total of 14 homes, Viola said, including those that are part of Habitat's blitz. They all will be in one cul-de-sac, which will be named "Pauli Murray Place" in a ceremony today for the local civil rights leader.

A week of work

It normally takes Habitat volunteers about six months to build a house, Viola said.

For professionals, it's about seven or eight weeks, said Nick Tennyson, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Durham and Orange Counties.

But it's very possible to do it in one, he said. It just requires organization.

Normally, Tennyson said, you try to have only one subcontractor on site at a time, so they don't interfere with each other. In a blitz, the contractors work at the same time and on a much tighter time frame.

Many of the construction materials already will be at site, he said.

The city Inspections Department also has agreed to check things out as soon as each house is ready, Viola said.

Tennyson said houses have been built in as little as one day as part of similar projects in other parts of the country.

The Home Builders Blitz model began in Wake County in 2002 and moved to Greensboro a year later, according to Habitat for Humanity International's Web site, www.habitat.org.

It worked so well that Durham is doing it now. And next June, Habitat for Humanity International is launching a nationwide Home Builders Blitz. It hopes to build 1,000 houses in one week.

It helps that this method is significantly cheaper for the local habitat chapter.

Each Habitat for Humanity house normally costs about $100,000 to build, Viola said. The Durham project is projected to cost about $80,000 total, for all seven homes.

A giant slain

Derrick Maiden Sr. will be moving into one of the new houses with his wife, three of his children and one grandchild.

"I'm looking toward raising my children in that home and rising the neighborhood in a positive way," said Maiden, 41, who works as a maintenance technician at Mark Jacobson Toyota.

When he and his wife first applied for the program several years ago, they had bad credit, he said. Habitat encouraged them to "just chip away" at their debt and, eventually, they were accepted.

Now that they almost have a house of their own, they are looking toward the future.

"I feel good. I feel real good going into the future because it's like a giant -- for me, it's like a giant that has been slain, and I'm looking forward to other things that are going to come up in life," Maiden said. "And I can look back on that and I know that's going to encourage me to go even farther."

ABOUT HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

Habitat for Humanity's goal is to help people and families who cannot get a traditional mortgage own a house, said Mitzi Viola, the director of development for Habitat for Humanity of Durham.

Habitat volunteers build houses for people in its program.

To qualify for the program, individuals and families must have physical need in their current residence. That can mean a lack of safety or structural integrity, or overcrowding, Viola said.

They also must make between 30 percent and 60 percent of Durham's median income, she said.

For an individual, that works out to between $14,950 and $29,950. For a family of three, that is between $19,250 and $38,500.

Families who qualify are then visited by Habitat's Family Selection Committee, which decides which families should be admitted.

Prospective homeowners also must be able to pay closing costs -- 1 percent of the total cost of the house, which is normally about $1,000.

They then repay the appraised value of the home with a 30-year mortgage, Viola said.

The mortgage is no-interest, so it's affordable for the homeowners, Viola said. The average monthly cost is $450. In Durham, only 1.7 percent of Habitat's homeowners default on their mortgage.

Nationwide, she said the current figure is more than 5 percent, and "these are people who earn far more than our homeowners tend to earn."

The money Habitat gets goes into new homes. "Their mortgage payments pay for future construction," Viola said.

The cost for future homeowners isn't only financial.

They must spend at least 240 "sweat equity" hours doing volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity projects -- often a combination of working on their own home and other homes.

They also must complete classes in budgeting and home maintenance.

For more information, go to www.durhamhabitat.org

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