On Jan 3, 10:18*pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
"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" organized by the charity
Habitat for Humanity.

"Eight years later it is better known for cockroaches, mildew and mysterious
skin rashes."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...icas/article54...

I don't see how volunteers could be responsible for the cockroaches...

I would think the residents are culpable too. Maybe HFH has the
deepest pockets, but if your motis operandi is to have the home owners
contribute sweat equity, then those homeowners must also share in the
liability of shoddy construction. Insulating the homeowners from all
liability is not right, mildew, roaches and skin rashes can easily be
due to poor maintenance as well as construction. I've volunteered for
two HFH projects, not to feel good, but simply because my employer
solicited volunteers and I like to build stuff while drinking a beer
in the sun. Personally I feel my yearly contribution to United Way
did more than those weekends and cost me much less. The projects were
managed well enough, but the women being housed didn't have a clue
about home ownership and the responsibilities involved down the road,
having lived in public housing. The houses were very bland vinyl-
sided frame units not much stronger than if you parked a row of double-
wide mobile homes there. That community today is deteriorating, sadly
due more to the lack of responsible men than shoddy construction.