No comment needed for an article in the Times Online:
RESIDENTS of a model housing estate bankrolled by Hollywood celebrities and hand-built by Jimmy Carter, the former US president, are complaining that it is falling apart.
Fairway Oaks was built on northern Florida wasteland by 10,000 volunteers, including Carter, in a record 17-day “blitz” organised by the charity Habitat for Humanity.
Eight years later it is better known for cockroaches, mildew and mysterious skin rashes.
The case could challenge the bedrock philosophy behind Habitat for Humanity, claiming that using volunteers, rather than professional builders, is causing as many problems as it solves.
April Charney, a lawyer representing many of the 85 homeowners in Fairway Oaks, said she had no problems taking on Habitat for Humanity, despite its status as a “darling of liberal social activists”. She said the charity should have told people that part of the estate had been built on a rubbish dump.
One man pulled up his floorboards to find rubbish 5ft deep under his kitchen. Other complaints include cracking walls and rotting door frames that let in rats and ants. Many residents have complained of mildew and mysterious skin rashes.
Tags: jimmy carter Counter-Activism
1) Have you ever lived in a house for 8 years, all the while never repairing it? Of COURSE it's falling apart. That's what houses do if you don't tend to them.
2) Who's the person who brought the cockroaches? My guess is that it's not the terrorist-loving Jimmy Carter.
Habitat for Humanity is the one good thing the man did in an otherwise wasted and sometimes evil life. I don't think it's fair to disparage it. I've seen it at work in Louisiana. It's a pretty good thing.