We’ve all seen our fair share of vacant lots around Buffalo. Fortunately there are fewer and fewer on the West Side thanks to organizations such as Grassroots Gardens that turn the underutilized parcels into community gardens. But there are other groups that are joining in to create built infill that will ultimately help the region in various ways.
Recently, students at Erie 1 BOCES Building Trades program built a house from scratch, interior and exterior, for a couple of reasons. First, the trades experience for the students will last them a lifetime. There’s nothing better than hands-on experience in order to prepare young people for the job market. Next, the house that the students built is destined for the West Side of the city, where low income and refugee families are waiting for opportunities to create new/better lives.
The students, with help from Habitat for Humanity, East Hill Foundation and The Patrick P. Lee Foundation, have just completed a 1,366 sq. ft. modular house, complete with bathroom and kitchen facilities. “Education leading to employable skills is very important to our foundation,” says Rozalind J. Adams, program director for The Patrick P. Lee Foundation. “The partnership of Erie 1 BOCES and Habitat for Humanity working together to provide building skills by constructing a home to be offered to a family in the Buffalo area fits our mission. It was very impressive to see the finished product and the pride of the students who worked on this project.”
The house seen in the lead image was built in the parking lot of Erie 1 BOCES Potter Career & Technical Center in West Seneca. It took ten high school seniors to complete the four-bedroom house. The work consisted of building the structure, putting up walls, and installing electrical, along with some finishing details. From there, Habitat for Humanity will get to work on the final preparation, once the house is resting on its new foundation, so that the designated family can move in. “It has been a rewarding experience for me to watch the students’ progress on building this house in particular,” says David Grieco, building trades instructor for Erie 1 BOCES.
In a stroke of luck, while the West Seneca students were working on their home-building project, as second set of Erie 1 BOCES Harkness Career & Technical Center students (also seniors) were busy building a second house in Cheektowaga. That house was recently auctioned off and fetched $37,500 via Cash Cunningham auctioneer. The latter house was purchased by Habitat for Humanity and will ultimately wind up on Dewitt Street in Buffalo. The money raised at the auction will be earmarked for a 2014-15 class project.
Photo: The Erie 1 BOCES students, seen in yellow, with their instructor David Grieco, Rozalind Adams from The Patrick P. Lee Foundation, Kevin J. Scherf from Habitat for Humanity Buffalo, and East Hill Foundation Board Member John Siegel.