Habitat for Humanity goes green with straw

About 40 people showed up to help Habitat for Humanity build a home for another low-income Spokane family on Saturday.

The charity has offered “a hand up, not a hand out” to those in need by building 157 homes since 1988, said Michone Preston, executive director of Habitat for Humanity – Spokane.

But what really brought out the volunteers on Earth Day was Kelly Lerner, the head honcho of environmentally friendly construction in these parts, having built three schools and hundreds of homes out of straw.

“I wanted to help out,” said volunteer Greg Ramos, “and get some experience.”

The Wellpinit Middle School employee is planning on building himself a straw home near Little Falls Dam on the Spokane Reservation. It was the first time he had worked on a Habitat home, but he wanted to watch Lerner at work.

It also was Habitat for Humanity – Spokane’s first green-built home.

“We have been intrigued about the process for a long time, and I think we need the right teacher to help us through the process,” Preston said.

That teacher was Lerner, a professor of architecture at Washington State University, who received the World Habitat Award at the United Nations World Habitat Day celebration in 2005 for her work with Adventist Development in China.

China is as good a place as any to start saving the planet, one bale at a time, Lerner explained, because of the nation’s high-sulfur coal used for firing power plants. The 600 homes Lerner has built there are saving Chinese homeowners about 65 percent on their energy costs.

But the 18-inch-thick straw walls with three or four times the insulation of a typical stud-wall home weren’t the only thing going for the home being built Saturday on North Waldo Road near Felts Field.

Hot-water tubes running under the floor generate individualized heat to each room, and passive solar design lets the sun in during winter and keeps the sun out during the summer.

Construction supervisor Bill McMillan has built dozens of homes for Habitat. This was his first one made out of straw.

“We’ve always been interested in ecologically friendly construction,” he said.

Design of the 1,400-square-foot, four-bedroom home was chosen by a panel of judges composed of professors, Habitat officials and Northwest EcoBuilding Guild members from a competition among 16 WSU architecture students. The winner, Carson Schultz, 21, was on hand Saturday to help with construction.

“It’s good for habitat to go sustainable,” said Schultz, a Shadle High School graduate.

It is the first time the WSU School of Architecture has joined with Habitat for Humanity, Preston said. The charity’s green building committee analyzed different environmentally friendly construction methods before deciding to go with straw, which is readily available.

Before placing the bales on Saturday, the home had been framed and the roof was installed to keep the straw dry during construction. The walls and windows were all framed with 4x4s. With the straw in place by midafternoon, the crew began adding chicken wire to prepare the walls for stucco.

Habitat homes offer few costly extras, Preston said: no basement, garage or carport, bay windows or French doors. That’s because the family, selected because it earns 25 to 50 percent of the area’s median income, will be paying $77,000, plus 500 hours of “sweat equity” for the home.

Habitat offers a 30-year, no interest loan, and the family pays $1,500 toward closing costs.

There is also a second or “silent” mortgage, Preston explained. Although the first mortgage is $77,000, the appraised value might be $100,000. The silent mortgage is the difference between the two numbers. That sum diminishes over time at a rate of 5 percent a year for 20 years. No payments are made on the silent mortgage, but if the family moves out before the 20-year period ends, it pays off whatever remains of both mortgages.

“This is part of Habitat’s ‘hand up, not a handout’ philosophy,” Preston said.

The family, which chose to remain anonymous, currently lives in substandard housing in the Spokane area.

Preston said Habitat supporters also contribute cash, but most prefer to volunteer their services.

“Working side-by-side with the family has a reward that writing a check does not,” she said.