Affordable
Housing At What Price?
By
Janet Ahmad
Henry Cisneros, amid great
fanfare, returned home to San Antonio to fulfill a
lifelong dream of building affordable housing for the
people of the inner city.
However, his new vision for San
Antonio, Lago Vista, may come with a much higher
price.
Affordable? Many think not.
On some models the garage and a
master bathroom cost extra. All models are built with
siding yet are priced equal to, or cost more than,
all-brick homes in more affluent areas of town.
This dream of homeownership also
comes with a catch. A disclaimer.
KB Homes and Cisneros warn of
Kelly AFB contamination, and that a preliminary
Environmental Site Assessment for Lago Vista was
prepared but " did not include any testing or
sampling of the groundwater beneath Lago Vista and
did not consider any impact of the Kelly AFB
contamination on Lago Vista."
It further states: " You
agree and acknowledge that Kaufman and Broad is not
responsible or liable for any environmental
conditions at Lago Vista that are the result of the
environmental contamination at Kelly AFB, including
but not limited to the polluted groundwater. You
hereby agree to release Kaufman and Broad from any
claims, action, causes of action, personal injury,
death or property losses related to the quality of
drinking water in Lago Vista. This release is a
material condition of the purchase of your home and
the sales price of your home by Kaufman and Broad
reflects this condition and shall serve as full and
adequate consideration for this release."
The KB/Cisneros "10 Year
Written Warranty" also has the following
exclusions: "carcinogenic substances or other
pollutants and contaminants; or the presence of
hazardous or toxic materials resulting in
uninhabitability or health risk within the home."
The obvious question is how the
city of San Antonio would approve the subdivision and
issue building permits without requiring testing for
contamination?
The Code of Federal Regulations
states: "The property shall be free of those
foreseeable hazards and adverse conditions which may
affect the health and safety of the occupants."
It is obvious these hazards and
adverse conditions are foreseen since KB and Cisneros
require buyers to literally sign away their life.
Will the people who love and
trust Henry Cisneros follow like sheep?
Affordable housing, at what price?
n
of the Task Force was to undertake a comprehensive
review…with a goal of improving AAA services and
helping the AAA be more responsive to the needs of
the construction industry.”
The
results are favorable decisions for the builder and a
very expensive process and lesson for the homebuyer.
The following quotes don't appear to help Builder
credibility and illustrates an arrogant attitude.
Builders, on the other hand, make no apologies for
their use of binding arbitration clauses.
"We
have not had one instance of litigation since we put
in our binding arbitration contract," boasts
David Oyler of the Colorado division of Schuler Homes.
Brian
Binash, executive vice president of Emerald Homes in
The Woodlands, Texas, tells any client who refuses to
sign his company's arbitration clause to go "elsewhere."
He says they will continue the practice, even if (and
when) the roaring economy slows down.
If
builders have no liability, then why should they be
concerned about compliance with building standards,
quality or have any pride in their profession?
If
they have no shame about depriving homebuyers of
their constitutional rights for the builders benefit,
then why would they even care about health and safety?
Speaking
of health and safety, this brings me to the issue of
Toxic Waste Dumps or Brownfields and the second
article, “National
Elections: Will They Make A Difference?”
The
following statement is from the NAHB's senior staff
vice president for federal government affairs, Jerry
Howard.
"What
NAHB is for is smart, consistent growth planning that
provides the public with choices in how and where
they will live," he says. "We start with
that as our basic platform."
"Would
we like to see more infill development? Yes, and we'd
like to see brownfields redevelopment reform pass."
This
should help their image problem!
Isn't
this something to look forward to? What do the
builders have to lose? They have Binding Arbitration
and buyers have given up their constitutional right
to sue the builder.
He
who has the gold rules… He who has a Toxic Waste
Dump has the GOLD.
They
have insulted our intelligence for far too long.
-Janet Janet Ahmad,
President HomeOwners for Better Building San Antonio,
TX http://www.hobb.org
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What
A Dump!
By
Janet Ahmad
Here
is something to look forward to; buying a home built
on a toxic waste dump, also known as brownfields.
Two
articles appeared in the National Association of Home
Builders (NBAH) publication: "Builder
on Line,” "Copping An Attitude: War of
Words" by Matthew Power, and “National
Elections: Will They Make A Difference?” by
Peter Bodensteiner.
The
first article by Matthew Power's tells of a poor
industry image and industry concerns about Developers
and Home Builders of questionable reputations and
lack of credibility.
Bob
Mitchell, president of the NAHB states, “The
industry's credibility has hit rock bottom. We are
thought of as the greedy developers. And we can't win
an initiative, because nobody thinks we care.”
“Many
builders don't recognize that the days of getting
your development passed by eating barbecue with the
right guy and contributing to his campaign are over,”
says Gregg Logan, managing director at the real
estate consulting firm of Robert Charles Lesser &
Co. in Atlanta. The issue of required contractual
agreements for Binding Arbitration doesn’t help
there image either.
However,
it does confirm that Binding Arbitration has cured
many of the builders' concerns of builder liability.
How
does it work? In order to buy the American Dream
buyers must give up their 7th amendment
Constitutional Right to a trial by jury. Further, the
arbitration rules were written by the building
industry.
A
publication by the American Arbitration Association (AAA)
states: “In June 1994 the AAA created the
Construction ADR Task Force, comprised of 55
representatives of the construction industry and its
advocates. The missio
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