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Home Demolition — A Housing Strategy?
May 21st, 2009 by Mike Knutson
When most people think about Habitat for Humanity programs, they think of volunteers helping homeowners build new homes. The New York Times, however, tells us of a Saginaw, MI Habitat affiliate who has added demolition to its mission.
Saginaw is approximately 100 miles northwest of Detroit, and has experienced outmigration due to tough economic times in the automotive industry. In describing Saginaw, the article notes:
Saginaw… is a city of contrasts: neighborhoods of enormous, well-kept homes (this was, after all, a lumber town before it was a car town) but also blocks of vacant lots and shuttered houses.
Sounds like a lot of rural communities in our part of the country could meet this description as well. Nice, new homes often sit out on the edge of town, while older homes in the community’s core have often rotted away.
Although my preference is for purchase, rehab, resell programs rather than demolition, anyone who accepts the evidence of broken window theory will appreciate the importance of maintaining tidy neighborhoods. And because the organization’s volunteers tear out recyclable features (ie – cabinets, fixtures, sinks, etc…) for resell, the organization is also generating income to complete its mission of helping people get into new or rehabbed houses.
The bottom line is that communities with vacant houses need to deal with the issue. Saginaw’s Habitat for Humanity chapter appears to be pointing the way to one solution.
Photo by: piddix/Flickr
Tags: broken window theory, Habitat for Humanity, Michigan, Purchase Rehab Resell, rural housing
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