Buffalo Rising Online

Jun 13th, 8:23am By Jennifer Lawandus

When peering down seemingly quiet Guilford Street in Buffalo, NY, a group of people can be seen busily working on four houses located toward the end of the street. These four homes are being built by Habitat for Humanity with the help of local volunteers and those from as far away as Virginia.

Locally, University at Buffalo students have helped construct these four homes through a three-credit-hour course offered by the School of Architecture and Planning. This course allows students to apply their knowledge from the classroom while gaining practical experience that can’t be taught in theory. The course is headed by UB instructional support technician Richard Yencer, who said, “The program is important because it gives students hands on experience while introducing them to community service. Furthermore, the course helps students realize how blessed they are to be in the position to give back to the community.”

Of the four houses being constructed on Guilford Street, one in particular has come to the attention of Buffalo Rising. House 27 has been termed “the girls house” by a team of female students who began working on the house this year, on May 12. The project started with 37 UB students who were randomly split into four teams among the four homes. It just so happened that the four students working on house 27 included all females. Under the supervision of Don Marx, the quartet of students worked on house 27 for 14 days. In this time the concrete walls were poured, the roof framed and 2/3 of the roof was shingled. The goal of the project for house 27 was to reconstruct the outside of the house so that it would protected from rain and other elements, and the students were successful in this.

After the 14 days of hard work by the UB students the houses were put on the back burner until Habitat for Humanity could make time for them in their extremely busy schedule. Construction on house 27 and the other three homes began again on June 10. Currently, the South Haven United Church of Christ from Cleveland and the Seton Hall prep school from New Jersey are volunteering to work on the homes for the week. Even with the long list of volunteers from all over the country the homes on Guilford street aren’t expected to be done until Christmas of this year, according to George Copeland, construction supervisor.

Copeland was nice enough to give me a tour around the construction site which was teaming with 20 to 30 volunteers at eight am on June 11. He even offered me an interview on the roof of one of the houses with the President of Habitat for Humanity Ronald Talboys, who was hammering shingles, but I declined.

Once on flat ground, Talboys explained to me that Habitat for Humanity has ten locations all over the city with six to eight houses they are rehabilitating during the summer, not including the four new builds located on Guilford Street. Additionally, I learned that anyone can volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. They work on homes with individual volunteers Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and on Saturdays they work with groups. Individuals or groups interested in volunteering can contact George Copeland at 716.480.2461.