Green Homes for the Homeless Program

With building costs and unemployment skyrocketing, many families find themselves with few options when it comes to home ownership. Traditional stick-built housing and thirty-year mortgages put homes out of reach for an increasing majority of people. There is an alternative... What It Is The Culture Artist Organization's Green Homes for the Homeless Program builds homes for people who could not otherwise afford them. These homes will be built of natural materials using passive solar and other energy-saving techniques. Whenever possible, they are built off-the-grid with alternative energies such as solar and wind power. These homes will be built using natural materials harvested from the building site. How It Works When this program is up and running, the homes will be built on land donated or purchased by the Culture Artist Organization. The homes will be built using natural materials such as adobe, straw bales, or earth bags. Since these materials are inexpensive or free, the homes will be inexpensive as well. In at least one case, such a home was built for less than $500! The tradeoff for the inexpensive materials is that natural building is a labor-intensive process. It can take up to a year to complete such a home if you only have a few people. The advantage of the Green Homes for the Homeless Program is that as an educational nonprofit, the Culture Artist Organization holds periodic workshops on natural building techniques. In the future, as the Green Homes for the Homeless Program gets underway, these workshops will be held in conjunction with the program. We will charge participants a nominal fee to come and learn green building techniques. These participants will in effect be providing the labor to build the homes. Once a home is completed, a screened family will take possession of it. We will offer financing to qualified families and individuals at very reasonable rates, based on income. This program will be somewhat similar to Auburn University's Rural Studio Program, which uses reclaimed building materials and sustainable building practices to built homes and facilities for low-income families. What We Need Unless an 'angel donor' comes forth to donate a parcel of land, we will have to undertake a fundraising campaign in order to purchase the land for our first green-built homes. Such a fundraising campaign is already underway. When we have purchased our first parcel, we will announce it here on the website and in the newsletter. We will begin screening applicants when the first tract has been purchased. Applicants are expected to be able to contribute labor to the building of the home (unless disabled or otherwise unable to do so). The chosen families will participate in the design, building and completion of their home. We will need volunteers to help with organization, administration and labor. We will also need materials, and donations. If you are interested in learning about building with natural materials, regular volunteers may attend classes for free, subject to availability. To volunteer, or for more information on the Green Homes for the Homeless Program, please email us. Workshops Our chief method of fundraising at the moment consists of offering workshops and educational programs for a fee. If you are a potential homebuilder interested in building a home using natural materials, we'd love to have you host a workshop! To host a workshop, you'd need a parcel of land, building permits, and plans, if required by your local building inspector (Don't worry...we may be able to help you get these). Hosts get free workshops on the natural building material(s) of their choice. In exchange, you grant the Culture Artist Organization the privilege to charge student participants a fee to come to your site and learn natural building under the supervision of a Culture Artist Organization instructor. You get free labor, and we get the fees for the workshop(s). If you are interested in hosting such a workshop, please contact us.