Lawyers get down, dirty for housing
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In order to join this elite club of jurists, you”™ll have to trade in the snazzy suit and briefcase and replace with jeans and shovel. A little dirt under the fingernails and a sturdy pair of workboots definitely add appeal to the “judges” who”™ll be evaluating your expertise ”“ Newburgh”™s Habitat for Humanity.
Many of the regions”™ lawyers have been giving up high-priced timemes for the nonprofit, where volunteerism is not only welcome, but essential, to get the job done. for a higher calling: helping to build ho
Last Wednesday, 38 lawyers cleared court calendars to rebuild a new house on East Parmenter Street in downtown Newburgh. They dug trenches instead of wading through piles paperwork, helping rebuild a burnt-out house that was donated to Habitat and torn down to make way for a new home for a lucky family. Walls went up, shovels went in the ground around the new home”™s foundation, even though those who were helped building it knew they were probably losing potential clients because people who live in decent housing have a tendency to be productive citizens and stay out of trouble, which may end up costing these same lawyers a loss of clients. But it”™s much better to help someone with a house closing than with a cell door closing.
Habitat”™s executive director Deidre Glenn has a dedicated staff that has recruited Realtors, attorneys, construction workers from several trades and college students to donate time, whether stuffing envelopes or taking a house down, all to help in the rebuilding of  a city one house at a time. To date, more than two-dozen new houses are now home to lucky lottery winners. Â
“Thanks to attorney Maureen Crush, who sits on our board, we now have a dozen law firms in the Hudson Valley participating in volunteer efforts,” said Glenn.
Habitat is partnering with  Leyland Alliance of Tuxedo to build a total 24 homes on East Parmenter Street, in addition to the one the team of attorneys were busily putting up last week for Presby House, a coalition of 16 Presbyterian churches that are helping rebuild in the inner cities of the Hudson Valley. The homes are scheduled to replace the burned out crack houses that still stand on East Parmenter, much to the delight of residents who have fought to clean up their street. Of those 24, eight will be built by Habitat, the remaining by Leyland. The goal is to have a neighborhood where every house has its own character, not a cookie-cutter collection of homes, Louis Marquet, executive vice president of Leyland, told HV Biz last year.
Currently, infrastructure for new sewer and water is completed, said Glenn, who hopes that the street will be repaved before winter sets in. Leyland is in the final stages of getting funding in place for the project, said Marquet. Â
While Habitat homes will sell to those making 25 percent to 50 percent of the county”™s median income, Leyland homes will be priced in the low $200”™s ”“ still affordable considering the homes will be brand new and built with energy-saving concepts incorporated into the design, said Marquet.
While Leyland and Habitat hoped that work would begin by the end of 2007 and people would be moving in at the end of this year, the economy hasn”™t cooperated with their timetable. Nevertheless, both are working to get the city of Newburgh back on its feet ”“ despite lenders tightening their grip on lending.
Glenn said 34 homes have been completed and sold to first-timemebuyers since 2001. “We”™re a nonprofit, so our funding is based on different criteria than Leyland”™s is; we rely on donations and grants to get our work done. The city has been great in helping us get rid of some of these blighted buildings through donating them to us and getting the needed infrastructure in to bring these blighted neighborhoods back to life.” Both Glenn and Marquet are hoping to get those 24 homes up and ready for occupancy by the end of 2009. ho
For more information, visit www.habitatnewburgh.org.