Habitat for Humanity helps new homeowner build ‘green’
Its first in southeast Michigan
By Jacquelyn Gutc
The Oakland Press
October 12, 2008
On Saturday, Camisha Byrd became one of the nearly 100 people who have accepted the key to a new home built by Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County and its partners.
She is the first, however, in Southeast Michigan to be handed a key to an affordable, eco-friendly Habitat home.
“It’s wonderful,” said the 36-year-old mother of two young children. “It’s money in my pocket,” because of money saved on energy costs.
“My air in the house is going to be cleaner than what’s outside and that’s going to help my daughter also when the weather changes,” said Byrd. “She has asthma, so it’s better for her also.”
Built on Ferry Street in Pontiac and designed by Woody Gontina and Timothy Risk, co-owners of Clawson-based Gontina Building and Design, the home seeks to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification standards and cost less than $100,000.
LEED-certified homes area measured in categories including innovation, sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality.
Among the eco-friendly materials in Byrd’s home, are insulated exterior and foundation walls; large windows strategically placed to efficiently heat or cool rooms; paint, carpet and padding labeled as having low volatile organic compounds; and appliances that have met guidelines by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or U.S. Department of Energy and earned Energy Star ratings.
The sky blue, eco-friendly siding and installation were donated by Auburn Hills-based Microposite. The siding looks like wood, is made with natural materials and said to be energy efficient.
“Our goal isn’t just to build houses. Our goal is to have fully partnered, great homeowners for generations to come,” said Sally LePla, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County.
“So if we don’t build a house that has sustainable building and their fuel costs get too high, then they’re in trouble because these are folks who can’t qualify for conventional financing. What sustainable building does is allow as much as 50 percent less for fuel costs than a conventional house.”
Because LEED-certified homes are more expensive to build, Habitat won’t be able to build them exclusively, but LePla said all of the Oakland County chapter’s homes will get Energy Star ratings.
The major sponsor of Byrd’s home is Chrysler Financial, which had more than 200 employees donate more than 1,700 hours to the construction.
Walls of the home were raised on Sept. 4 and work is almost done. Carpet and kitchen counters still need to be installed.
“Coming out here seeing it when it was just dirt and there was nothing, and then you walk through the house, I mean, it’s a real house!” said Darryl Jackson, chief operating officer of Chrysler Financial.
“That’s just amazing. And people at the company did it. Not only did we write a check, we helped cash the check.”
Byrd put in 300 hours working on her home, which is one of six other Habitat homes being built on Ferry.
“It’s a good experience,” she said. “I love being here just helping out because I feel like I need to be here to help everyone and the times I wasn’t here, it kind of bothered me because I’m not used to people doing stuff for me. So I felt like I needed to be here to help out the volunteers.”
She said she had fun doing work like caulking and painting.
“What a tremendous opportunity for (the Byrds),” Jackson said. “They get to grow up not only in a house they helped build, but also in a house that is green — in a house that absolutely signifies everything we have to do as a society.”