Learn, Sow, Reap

“You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.” – Psalm 128:2

Last week we began working on a house which I began repairing last August when I was here with AmeriCorps. At that time it was literally falling down and Mary, the homeowner was living in her front room without any running water. Mary is in her 50’s or 60’s and I believe she is unemployed on disability. When we left last August her house was put on new foundation and her exterior walls were fixed up. We are now back and since then there haven’t been many volunteers or AmeriCorps teams to continue the work. We put mud on the drywall which was put up and sanded it as well. We are now ready to paint, put up base boards, frame out the windows and other various finishing work so that Mary can move back in.

When I was here back in July and August, we had a consistent gathering of men from around the neighborhood who would just watch the work we were doing. They seemed to be observing every action we were doing as if they were learning so they could do it themselves. Last week, while we were mudding the inside and sanding down the mud, the next door neighbor whose house is pictured above came over to observe what we were doing. I talked to him a bit and I think he remembered me from last August. The next day as we were working, he called us over and told us to check out the inside of his house. To our surprise he had learned from the work we did back in August and that other volunteers had done since then. He scrounged around and saved to gather supplies and had begun fixing the interior of his own house. As he showed us, he had a huge smile on his face and a sense of pride. He was asking me for my opinion on it as if I was some sort of judge and I told him he was doing some good work. He replied with a sincere “Thank You.” The average home buyer would never even stop to take a look at this house, and most contractors would probably tear it down and build a new one rather than repair it, but to this man it is more than a house. It is his security and means of living. I am sure he does not have the funds to build new. Although, this house to me is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It is the embodiment of hard-work, determination and will to not only survive but rise above. This man could not have planned for his house to be destroyed during hurricane Katrina and obviously was not going to let it get him down.

Public Service Announcement: One thing we have recently learned about is the issue facing those who wish to fix their houses, but don’t have the funds and live in this particular area which has been deemed a flood zone. In order to legally do house repairs one must attain a building permit which cost according to the amount which will go into the repairs. They can range from $50 up to even around $250. On top of that fee there would be limitations on the amount of money you could put into the house, without it being rebuilt and put on stilts since it is in a flood zone. This would not be a problem if the homeowner has enough money to rebuild his house, or if they are able to get a non-profit to help them rebuild this house. The problem is most people in this area do not have the funds to rebuild their houses, their houses will cost more than the permit limitations to fix up (even to livable conditions) and the non-profits in the area are overloaded with work and/or don’t have the necessary funds to help everyone.
This puts the homeowner in a sticky situation. They either live in the condition which their house is left in, which could be like Mary (no running water and house falling down) or they do what this man is doing and little by little rebuild your house to a living condition without a permit and hope not to get caught by the city. I guess this is how people are forced out of their homes so cities can reclaim neighborhoods and bring in higher income residents who can afford to build new houses and thus pay more in taxes to the city. The problem is: what happens to the people who have originally been living there? Where do they go?

I leave you all with one quote: “He (Jesus) said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’”

Perhaps it should be legal for a man to fix a house which is rightfully his to the best of his abilities and not be condemned because he doesn’t have enough funds to follow laws established by men.

Peace and Love,
Jordan and Jess