Nothing is what it seems.
Truer words were noever spoken!
Our church worked on two Habitat houses as mission projects a few years ago. I went on the first trip that summer and, from a spiritual standpoint, it was one of the best experiences of my life.
However, having been in and out of construction for the better part of my adult life, I can tell you it was an absolute joke from that standpoint. First off, We took a group of folks who know a LOT about construction, and we had almost 25 people go with us. When we went on the site, there were NO materials as the construction supervisor failed to call and order anything, so our guys got on the phone and ended up ordering what we needed to do what we were asked to do for the week. Well, one job we had was to hang a door going to a deck that was to be built the next week. When we set the door in place, we noticed the whole outside wall moved when we pushed on it because the team who did the framing had NO ONE with construction experience and failed to tie the walls or rafters together to stabilize it. We spent the better part of two days firming it all up.
When we left that week, the supervisor told us we had done more than any group he had ever had work on a house (well, DUH!) and was amazed how efficient we were. We worked out butts off, but the part about the prospective homeowner required to do a part of the work is misleading as well. Our "homeowner" was "handicapped" (read severely overweight with heart problems) and barely showed up at all. She did make a poster for all of us to sign that she said she would hang in the new house when done, but that was essentially it.
The next year, we had a group go up to work on a house being built next to the one we worked on the previous year. We had 8 people sign up to go and they got almost nothing accomplished as (again!) the supervisor failed to order materials.
We have not done another Habitat house since. I am NOT surprised at this article's revalations. It is, to me, a way for rich liberals to feel good about helping the "poor" when in fact they are doing very little to nothing to help the "poor" and it is a money pit. Typical liberal operation with the Grand Poobah of liberal inefficiency as it's main spokesman - Jimmah Cahtuh