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Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Virginia High School Students Help Meet Local Affordable Housing Needs

"Pioneer" is more than just a mascot at Heritage High School in Lynchburg, Virginia. It also reflects a pioneering new partnership between the school of 1100 students and the city's not-for-profit community.

Heritage High School students in Lynchburg built the house that in June was sited on McBrandon Drive in neighboring Madison Heights, Virginia.

Once student-built house was sited, other workers finished the tasks needed to turn the house into a home for a Lynchburg family.

With the start of each new school year every fall, some 25 juniors and seniors in Jerry Dudley's building trades class roll up their sleeves and get to work two or three hours every day building a brand new home from the ground up.

And in the spring, enough work has been done to load the house on a truck for transport from a lot next to the school to its permanent site where it will help one of Lynchburg's non-profit organizations meet the housing needs of their clients. The only cost to the organization is building materials.

It's a great way for Lynchburg non-profits to expand the supply of affordable housing.

Last year, the homebuilders at Heritage High completed and donated a home for Habitat for Humanity. This year, Rush Lifetime Homes, a HUD Supportive Housing grantee, had the good luck to acquire the class of 2003's home.

Early one Thursday morning this past June, the latest Heritage house -- a 12-ton, 1236 square-foot, three-bedroom, handicapped-accessible ranch -- was loaded onto two trucks for transport to the town of Madison Heights, just across the James River from downtown Lynchburg. Placed on top of an already completed basement apartment, the Heritage home joined a second duplex on the lot, built by Rush Homes using funds from the HUD grant.

A spacious, improved lot. Two duplexes. Four apartments for Rush clients. No wonder Rush Homes is happy with Heritage High. "After all the work," Rush Homes executive director Allison Wingfield told the Lynchburg News and Advance, "it's nice to see it actually taking place" less than a year after the first school bells rang.

It "was a good work experience" for the students, added instructor Dudley. And with another group of "Pioneers" ready to start school, roll up their sleeves and get to work just after Labor Day, he promises there will be many more Heritage homes to come.