dpb wrote:

Yeah, and the chances of that lesson being learned to the point of
making a lasting-enough difference in that time frame to let them
carry on indefinitely w/ a housing cost burden that surely must at a
minimum be several multiples of what they previously didn't have the
resources (either purely financial or management skills or both) to
handle would be vanishingly small I'd think.

Almost inevitably they're likely to leave them in worse shape than
they were before would be my guess in virtually every case long term.

You'd hope for better result but it's a case where they didn't really
"teach to fish" but "gave a whale". The net benefit would probably be
far greater but less suitable for TV if the network simply donated the
monies to Habitat or the Salvation Army or a local United Way.

That sounds like the typical family on the show was raised by wolves in the
north woods and can just barely dress themselves and eat with utensils.
Come on, they've built houses for disabled cops and firefighters and Iraq
war veterans, and middle-class families that either had some bad luck or
made a choice to take on needy relatives or handicapped kids or whoever at
the cost of their own comfort. I'm sure *some* of the folks who've been
given mini-mansions on EMHE have found themselves in over their heads (I've
read of a few cases), but that hardly applies to them all. No offense, but
the phrase "sour grapes" comes to mind when I hear this sort of speculation
about how those poor dumb slobs on EMHE almost inevitably couldn't handle
having an exceptionally nice house.