Cycling Coast to Coast

Yesterday, Devon and I got up really early to take the commuter rail out to Lawrence to volunteer with Merimack Valley Habitat for Humanity.  Their current project is three homes on Market Street.  When we got to the build site, we found that out that in January, a fire had destroyed the project.  The three houses were nearly completed, and two families were supposed to move in within a few weeks.  It was a pretty devastating tragedy, but MV Habitat has gotten a lot of support and donations, and they’re working hard to rebuild the lost houses.  The foundation is laid for two of the houses, and the third has the exterior walls in place for the first floor already.

Our main tasks for the day were to help build interior walls for the first floor.  Devon and I worked with a group to put up walls for the master bedroom and closet, and then support beams in the basement.  Since we were there on a weekday, many of the volunteers were regulars, and they were very warm and helpful.  I had a really fun time, and definitely got better at hammering as the day went on.

While I’ve posted about biking and fundraising, one very important aspect of Bike & Build that I’ve neglected so far is our cause — affordable housing.  When I first signed up for B&B, I did a lot of cursory reading on the topic, and got very interested and excited about it.  Sadly, I haven’t done much research since then.  Even though we’re all really excited about the cause, B&B realizes that many of us may not be very well-informed, so they created the Affordable Housing (AH) Curriculum.

The AH curriculum is the second part of our sweat equity (the first part is volunteering with an affordable housing organization) that we have to complete before the start of the trip.  Ever week on the road, we’ll have group AH meetings to discuss and educate everyone on AH issues.  To help guide those discussions, everyone is assigned a specific topic and two cities (of the ones we’ll pass through on the trip) to research beforehand.  The six main themes for discussion are:

1. What is the affordable housing crisis?
2. History of housing practices in the US
3. Social Influences
4. Statistics & recent studies
5. Nonprofit organizations devoted to the cause (like B&B!)
6. The government’s role in addressing the problem

I’ve been assigned the subtopic of HOPE VI, which falls under Theme 6.  I’m also responsible for finding out more about Las Vegas, NV, and Baker, CA.  As I learn more about the topics, I’ll post some interesting facts and articles here.