A House Made of Straw

The guys over at Power Line mentioned the story yesterday about the 'innovative' house insulated with straw in Minneapolis that had to be destroyed after the straw began to rot. It is a story about how easily good intentions can go bad especially when the hand of government is involved.

This was no ordinary house. It was a house stuffed with straw -- in the walls, in the foundation, and, under the original plans, in the attic.

The nonprofit developers boasted that the house was only the third straw-insulated house erected under the Minnesota building code. They touted it as a groundbreaker for sustainable and affordable construction.

Then the straw began to rot.

The words sustainable and affordable give you an idea of the mindset of the folks involved in this project.

Two Minneapolis nonprofit agencies, Southside Neighborhood Housing Services and the Community Eco-Design Network, teamed up in the mid-1990s and worked together on the straw-bale house.

Eco-Design co-founders Eric Hart and Rick Peterson said they could deliver a house with prefabricated modular construction for less cost than standard city-subsidized housing.

These nonprofit agencies are heavily subsidized by the city and state and are, in effect, merely an extension of the government.

One preconstruction budget for the project totaled $91,000, but the house ended up costing more than $200,000, Hart said. The state contributed $20,000, and other nonprofits committed more. Southside absorbed the brunt of the costs, selling the house to Simmons for $83,000.

Hmmm....That doesn't seem to quite meet the definition of either sustainable or affordable.

Construction began in 1998 and dragged on for months. Visitors recall seeing power tools being charged with solar cells, and rain soaking into straw bales. Jim Buesing said he had a gut feeling that although the crew was strong on enthusiasm, there were complications from weaving together alternate building techniques.

"I've been around the alternative movement enough to know that what they were trying to do was beyond their capacity," said Buesing, who leads a nonprofit housing agency that contributed a small amount of money.

There were signs that the project was running out of funds. Volunteer workers helped to cut costs.

"When you have volunteers involved, you're not necessarily going to have quality construction," said Shawn Young, who worked on the house early on.

Who needs quality when you have enthusiasm? The really sad aspect of the story though is the woman who moved into the straw house.

Simmons fit the Southside criterion of earning less than half of the region's median income when she and her two children moved in. She was a graduate of Southside's homebuyer education program. She started a day-care business, soon buying several houses, including one next door, for her enterprise.

She did everything that she was supposed to do. And now?

She remains on the hook for six mortgages on the property. The biggest was for a $66,400 loan made by U.S. Bank. Rogers said some parties to the financing are trying to work out debt relief for Simmons, but multiple target dates for wrapping up a deal have come and gone.

Rogers said Simmons continued payments on the house even after demolition, until settlement talks began.

All she wanted was a house. And if these agencies had just built her a regular old house (the kind that have proved effective in Minnesota for many years) she would have one today. But in their desire to pursue "alternative" methods they have left her with nothing but mortgage payments for a house that doesn't exist. Another proud day for the taxpayers of Minneapolis.