Warehouse Holds Hopes of Housing

Bob the builder has 40 extra windows and he wants to give them to you. You'll need them all, eventually. But you're working on building one house at a time, and there's nowhere to put the extra windows.

So what do you do?

Follow the example of one nonprofit organization that hit a milestone Thursday, inaugurating the first warehouse of its kind in Utah. The group, the Community Development Corp., hopes the Salt Lake warehouse will change its old reality of building or refurbishing a handful of low-cost homes at a time to 10-20 per year, according to executive director Bruce Quint. Quint's group calls it the Affordability Project.

The Community Development Corp. has worked for the past decade to bring home ownership to people with lower incomes. One snag it has hit, Quint says, is the widening gap between their clients' earnings and the average cost of a home. Beginning in the early '90s their clients had an $18,000 average income with a $100,000 average home sale price compared to today's $24,000 average income and a $170,000 average home sale price. The average home price figures in Salt Lake were determined by the Utah Association of Realtors.

The solution? Plan, plan, plan in order to pay less for materials. Create a place where materials can be used for present or future projects and where other agencies can easily make their materials accessible. Let Bob give you all 40 of his extra windows at a time. Everyone wins, Quint says — Bob doesn't have to throw away the surplus, and he can give it as a charitable donation. The Community Development Corp. receives valuable materials for multiple projects. That in turn gives more low-income families the opportunity to afford quality homes. The families then finance the homes, and the money goes toward future projects. A sort of revolving housing fund.

"It's a wonderful idea," said Nancy Lorenzo, program coordinator for the Community Development Corp.

The group has been able to cut costs in other ways, too, Lorenzo said. The University of Utah is interested in lending a hand with the project by offering help from its architectural students, who will also benefit from the experience. Other groups have donated money, materials and labor.

At the warehouse inauguration Thursday, Sen. Al Mansell said the project would improve not only the quality of life of the families involved but of the whole community.

"It's a hand up, not a hand out," Mansell said.

Alene Bentley, an aide to Rep. Jim Matheson, R-Utah, said the project is "giving families the hope and the chance to live the American dream."

To date, the organization reports it has helped house more than 800 Utah families.

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