White Sands Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Kuia Taiaroa said the kitchen in Haskell Hall’s pre-HUD Code home was being supported by a single post, and there was never a question in her mind that the home needed to be demolished.
Hall’s parents purchased the home in the 1960’s with a down payment of $15. “I work with the special needs guys and (my home) got to where I couldn’t have them over even though they begged and begged,” he said. “I just didn’t want them to be here if something did happen.”
His home met the requirements for the White Sands Habitat for Humanity’s House by House Rehabilitation Program that helps low-income families bring their homes up to code. “One of the requirements for our program is you have to own your home and your property or be in the process of owning of them,” Taiaroa said. “We can go in and bring everything up to code but in some cases it’s impossible to bring the homes up to code. So for manufactured homes we remove them and replace them with newer ones.”
Hall helped the Big Give crew from the air base demolish the home, and it will be replaced by a new manufactured home in September. Habitat could not afford to demolish homes, and put up new ones, adds Taiaroa, saying, “There’s no way we’d be able to fund a demolition. Just to demolish this size of a home, square footage is maybe 1,000 square feet, it costs anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000.”
Alamogordo Mayor Pro-Tem Al Hernandez lent Habitat a bobcat loader, and ten Airmen from the base volunteered one Saturday morning to take the home down. ##
(Photo credit:dailynews/Tara Melton–Volunteers who helped in the demolition of Haskell Hall’s pre-HUD Code home.)
