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Post by Script on Dec 3, 2008 20:16:07 GMT -5
There was an article about a plan to inject serious $$$$ into the public housing field in my city. You can read about it here: www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081203.whousing03/BNStory/National/One phrase caught my attention: some of our city-owned houses are 'too run down to repair'. Our public housing is not that old. Certainly none of the units are as old as my old house. Squalor happens, I guess: even in government-run places. I know that some people might 'blame the tenants', and certainly we have some crime-ridden neighbourhoods. I think it is more likely that housing (apartments, townhouses, single-family, whatever) needs huge amounts of time, energy, systematic upgrading, repairs and renewals, PLUS MONEY to maintain to a reasonable standard. I have been SHOCKED to discover that MANY parts of my home are (were) not up to current building code standards. Richard (Mr. Hunk) has done what he could to repair & replace. Moral of story: even wealthy CITIES like mine have problems KEEPING HOUSE. For all of us who struggle to make repairs, please know that you are NOT ALONE. |
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Post by messymimi on Dec 4, 2008 11:19:20 GMT -5
Thank you, Script.
We have been told that, due to a flaw in how this house was built, it would cost more to actually repair than it is worth. We will probably just slap on another band-aid solution and wait until the kids are grown, tear it down, sell the lot, and break even if we are lucky. There is no way to get out of it what we have put in.
Your message made me feel a bit better about it.
messymimi
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Post by gottaproblem on Dec 4, 2008 12:32:17 GMT -5
 Thanks for sharing the article.
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Post by scribbles on Dec 5, 2008 15:49:39 GMT -5
In the early 1990s, the government closed an Air Force base near my dad's house. One of the suggested uses for it was to house low-income families, because of all the houses that were there for the base personnel. Sounds like a good idea?
All of the houses, and there were a few hundred, were determined to be in too poor condition for anyone to live in, despite the fact that Air Force families had been living in them only a few months prior. And the cost to fix the houses was too high. They were all torn down. And these were buildings that did get regular maintenance.
Any house more than ten years old is probably not up to code, at least in the US. They keep upgrading the code. I currently rent half of a two-family home that was built in the 1920s. The town has an ordinance that if a landlord makes changes to the electrical wiring in one place in an apartment, he must bring the entire unit up to code. This was passed to improve the wiring in the older buildings in town. Instead, the landlords don't improve anything, because the cost of fixing everything would be more than they want to spend. They wait until there's a problem and then they can fix just that. The town is full of 80 and 90 year old wood frame houses and apartments with bad wiring and few electrical outlets. People living in them use tons of extension cords. Many buildings are fire traps just waiting for the right spark.
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Post by CaringFriend on Dec 5, 2008 19:03:38 GMT -5
The town has an ordinance that if a landlord makes changes to the electrical wiring in one place in an apartment, he must bring the entire unit up to code. This was passed to improve the wiring in the older buildings in town. Instead, the landlords don't improve anything, because the cost of fixing everything would be more than they want to spend. They wait until there's a problem and then they can fix just that. The town is full of 80 and 90 year old wood frame houses and apartments with bad wiring and few electrical outlets. People living in them use tons of extension cords. Many buildings are fire traps just waiting for the right spark. This is interesting. I have learned something today. It answers a lot of questions I've had about some rentals I have seen. |
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