Download 66 Lee Street, Charleston South Carolina: A unique partnership

66 Lee Street, Charleston South Carolina:
A unique partnership between Charleston Habitat for
Humanity, The City of Charleston and the Historic
Charleston Foundation
Background
Prospering early as a port and trade center, Charleston, South Carolina is home
to a large and broad collection of historic architecture that continues to serve
residential and commercial functions in the city and drives a major tourism
industry. The city’s Old and Historic District was the first historic district in the
United States and now comprises more than 1,000 acres and 4,800
buildings. Like many American cities, Charleston experienced significant
economic difficulties in the 20th century, leading to vacancy, disinvestment and
blight in the urban core.
During the tenure of Mayor Joseph P. Riley, first elected in 1975, the city has
undergone a significant economic and cultural revival with an emphasis on
historic preservation, community revitalization, urban design and planning, and
housing affordability. While Charleston experienced a housing boom during the
2000s, development was mostly focused outside of the city and new housing
remained relatively expensive. There are many senior, fixed-income families
living in older homes in urban Charleston. For these families, new homes are
unaffordable and maintenance on their historic home is expensive.
The department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has designated
Charleston an “entitlement city,” qualifying it for an annual allotment of federal
funds to be applied to local housing projects.
The Affiliate
Founded in 1989, Charleston Habitat for Humanity (CHFH) serves the urban core
of the city, where it has completed 82 houses as of late 2013. In 2009, the
affiliate began rehab work on existing homes, taking projects like painting,
window replacement, roof repair and bathroom accessibility. At present, CHFH
has rehabilitated five houses, most of them dating from the 1950s or 1960s and
none of them considered historic or located in a historic district. Under the
traditional Habitat model, new homes are built for first-time homebuyers only. In
Charleston, the rehabilitation program expands the affiliate’s ability to serve the
community because in order to qualify, a family must already own and live in the
home to be rehabbed.
Charleston Habitat’s Homeowner Home Rehabilitation Program (HHRP) finances
the repair work with a forgivable loan at zero percent interest. Qualified
homeowners must have clear title to their home, be current with mortgage and
tax payments, and, consistent with the Habitat model, must be willing to put in 25
hours of “sweat equity” in the rehabilitation process. The program covers up to
$20,000 in repair work. After the completion of the project, the homeowner must
own and live in their house for a period of up to 20 years to meet the
requirements of their forgivable loan, which is forgiven at a rate of between 5%
and 10% per year, dependent on the family’s income.
Several years ago, CHFH began considering the idea of doing an affordable
historic rehab, but had difficulty locating the right building and family.
The Local Preservation Partner
Historic Charleston Foundation (HCF) was founded in 1947 with the mission of
protecting the buildings, landscapes, and cultural resources that contribute to
Charleston’s heritage. As the first organization in the nation to use revolving
funds to save historic buildings, the Foundation has more than 50 years’
experience funding neighborhood revitalization and understanding the value of
geographically concentrated investment. In 1995, HCF launched the
Neighborhood Impact Initiative. Historically significant properties in economically
disadvantaged neighborhoods were successfully rehabilitated and sold to
families with ties to the neighborhood. The Initiative was designed to act as a
catalyst for the preservation of entire neighborhoods. HCF used designated
funds for these projects, selling at a loss in order to fulfill its dual goal of restoring
a vernacular house with some architectural merit and making homeownership on
the Charleston peninsula a possibility for a long-time resident. The Foundation
was searching for expertise in the homeowner candidate selection process as
well as a preservation-minded contractor.
Site Selection & Partnership
In 2009 the City of Charleston’s Department of Housing and Community
Development, knowing that Charleston Habitat and Historic Charleston
Foundation were partnering but had struggled to find a suitable home and
qualified family (earning below 60% of the area median family income), asked
CHFH to review the feasibility of rehabilitating the property at 66 Lee Street.
Owner-occupied since 1970, the house had fallen into disrepair and experienced
severe foundation settlement. CHFH calculated that by jointly leveraging its own
funds, city-awarded HUD funds, and funds contributed by Historic Charleston
Foundation, there was enough capital to complete the project. The family living at
66 Lee Street qualified for federal relocation funds, permitting the construction to
proceed more quickly with the family living elsewhere during the process.
Preservation
Constructed in the early 1900s, 66 Lee Street is a two-story timber framed single
house (a single pile dwelling with a central hall passage and one room on either
side. The narrow gable end of a Charleston single house fronts the street and
the side porch is called a “piazza”). Since the home falls just outside of the Old
City District, it is beyond the jurisdiction of the city’s Board of Architectural
Review. HCF and CHFH worked together to plan the preservation treatment of
the building and HCF has remained in an advisory position with CHFH’s
construction team throughout the process. The rehabilitation took place during
the spring, summer and fall of 2010. Work addressed interior and exterior
deterioration and corrected major foundation settlement, which had led to exterior
safety problems and rendered windows inoperable. In order to solve the
settlement problem and bring the house into compliance with FEMA floodplain
requirements, the structure was lifted 24 inches and set on a new foundation. A
specialist contractor used a cable system to straighten the building and level the
floors. Siding has been retained and repaired wherever possible, and the historic
windows and shutters have been repaired as possible, and the side piazza has
been reconstructed after falling into severe disrepair.
Preservation & Sustainability
Because the house’s interior was deteriorated and a full restoration was neither
financially feasible nor practical for the family, the organizations have focused
preservation efforts on the exterior, including the restoration of original 6 over 6
single glazed window sashes on the primary elevations of the building. The
interior of the house has been stripped back to the studs, furnishing an
opportunity to comprehensively install insulation and HVAC and setting the stage
to receive Earthcraft certification. According to CHFH Construction Manager Dan
Jones, Earthcraft is a green building rating system similar to LEED, but it is
specifically designed for the climate of the southeast, is better suited for a
nonprofit builder or contractor, and is more cost effective for CHFH to
implement. Charleston Habitat’s use of Earthcraft also aligns with Historic
Charleston Foundation’s environmental values. April Wood, Manager of
Easements and Technical Outreach at HCF, cited that “sustainability is an
important focus of Historic Charleston Foundation.” Moreover, she noted the
balance of preservation, sustainability, and cost ais a key factor in the success of
the project. “The point is to make the house livable for the family and to retain as
much historic material as possible. More flexibility is required on this type of
project than a standard restoration project”. The retention of the house’s original
single-glazed windows is an example of this flexibility. The windows are
important to the integrity of the exterior but their relatively low R-value (a
measure of resistance to thermal transmissivity) poses a challenge to the thermal
performance of the building. By redoubling energy saving efforts elsewhere in the
interior— including increased insulation—Jones was able to keep the original
windows on the primary elevations of the house while meeting overall energy
standards required by Earthcraft.
Lead Paint
The lead paint abatement at 66 Lee Street—Charleston Habitat’s first—was
funded by a $14,500 federal lead grant. While a contractor trained in abatement
was onsite throughout, Dan Jones is also becoming a certified supervisor in
order to handle future projects. He noted that although the process has been
both a construction and administrative challenge, the organizations are pleased
to be able to eliminate this hazard to the family.
Physical Fabric
The CHFH construction team has worked to restore and reinstall the original
window sashes, as well as to remove and restore original wood siding, doors and
shutters. Some of these original elements were severely deteriorated and either
broke or fell apart during the rehabilitation, forcing a search for appropriate
modern replacements. When the house was elevated, the existing chimney
became destabilized and needed to either be restored or demolished. After the
construction team evaluated the cost of their options and HCF discussed the
preservation implications of loss, the partners agreed that the best course of
action was to remove the chimney. Although Jones cites issues like these as a
challenge, he said they have taught his team to be flexible with expectations and
a shifting scope of work.
Keys to Success
The affordable rehabilitation of 66 Lee Street would not have been possible
without the cooperative funding and complimentary capacities of Charleston
Habitat, Historic Charleston Foundation, and the City of Charleston. The unique
three-way partnership has allowed each of the participants to bring their
resources to bear on a larger project than they could have handled as individual
organizations. The City of Charleston had the tools to identify a family in need
and the ability to channel $67,700 in HUD HOME funds to seed the rehab and
lead abatement. CHFH’s experience in evaluating partner family income, building
relationships with homeowners, and teaching financial management ensures the
project will have a deeper impact on housing affordability while preventing
displacement of the homeowners. Charleston Habitat’s construction and project
management capacities were critical to executing the rehab, as was its ability to
identify and employ subcontractors and coordinate volunteers to work on the
project. Historic Charleston Foundation contributed approximately $60,000 for
siding repair, window repair and replacement, door repair, historic shutter repair,
painting, piazza reconstruction, Earthcraft technical review, HVAC, and leveling
the floor systems. Including Habitat’s contribution of approximately $26,000, the
total budget for the rehab of 66 Lee Street was just over $180,000. Although this
is a high dollar figure, these funding streams all were earmarked for affordable
rehab—and in the case of HCF monies, it also had to be used to retain as much
historic fabric as possible. Additionally, per CHFH requirements, the family will
pay 10% of CHFH costs back into a revolving construction fund; the remaining
costs of all three organizations will be put into a forgivable loan for the family of
20 years forgiven at 5% per year, ensuring the family contines to own and live in
the rehabbed house.
Impact
By leveraging their own funds on a larger project, all three partner groups share
in greater overall programmatic benefits than they could have achieved
individually. The City of Charleston is conducting a master plan of the larger
Cooper River Bridge neighborhood, a project which will include transportation,
streetscape, and urban design improvements along Lee Street where the rehab
house is located. The Department of Housing and Community Development’s
investment in housing rehabilitation and affordability in this neighborhood
reinforces the City’s larger master planning effort and demonstrates a deep
commitment to its mission of fostering community and economic development
there.
With the demolition of the old bridge, new downtown acreage has opened up
even closer to Lee Street—land that the City has projected to be mixed-income,
market rate and workforce housing that integrates with the existing
neighborhood. When the new Cooper River Bridge was built nearby, the City
moved nine homes that were being displaced by the bridge’s construction to Lee
Street. The relocated homes and the rehabilitation of 66 Lee Street are
transforming a once deteriorated block. For Charleston Habitat, the project is an
opportunity to actively maintain the historic value of one neighborhood where the
affiliate works, benefitting both the partner family and larger community.
Moreover, the undertaking serves as a pilot project for future rehabilitations that
might take place within the historic district—demonstrating CHFH’s capacity to
execute a successful affordable historic project while maintaining high
preservation standards. This may be increasingly relevant given the city’s
proposed northward expansion of the Old and Historic District to include the Lee
Street property and much of the surrounding neighborhood. For Historic
Charleston Foundation, the rehab has been an opportunity to meet the core
programmatic goal of its Neighborhood Impact Initiative while risking less
financially and helping Habitat and the City meet their own goals. “We’ve learned,
taking into account our past experience going it alone, that it’s essential to have
partners to spread out the expertise and funding” said HCF’s April Wood.
Looking Ahead
Charleston Habitat, Historic Charleston Foundation, and the Department of
Housing and Community Development all agree that the rehabilitation of 66 Lee
Street is a project worth replicating, and one that has provided lessons for future
partnership. Construction Manager Dan Jones noted that budgeting the job,
coordinating the Habitat volunteer force and scheduling subcontractors would all
move more smoothly in the future. April Wood added that from Historic
Charleston Foundation’s perspective, the Lee Street rehab is a test case for
longer-term focus on rehabilitating Charleston’s freedman’s cottages— a building
type that is unique to the city and is currently under threat. For HCF, the ability to
focus on a building type and neighborhood (the cottages are generally grouped
together) is a further opportunity to preserve historically affordable housing while
calling attention to a dwindling but significant local resource. Geona Johnson,
Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, said that.
“With appropriate partnerships we can do it; alone we prefer not to because of
cost. When we can leverage, we’re willing to do it because people who own
these historic properties can’t always afford to rehab on their own. It provides
revitalization for a block and an opportunity for a family.” Charleston Habitat
Executive Director Jeremy Browning advises that affiliates interested in
undertaking similar rehab projects take time to develop the program thoroughly
and be willing to have the right expectations. This includes thinking through the
process with the construction manager, providing adequately for the cost and
process of lead and asbestos abatement, and making different use of staff and
volunteer time than on a traditional new build. For example, while CHFH
averages 15 volunteers on a new build, shifts of five or six are enough for a
rehab. Browning recommended that affiliates speak with other not-for-profits who
engage in rehabilitation work, as well as other professionals who deal with issues
common to older buildings—for example the inspectors who staff South
Carolina’s State Housing Trust program. “Many affiliates will jump at the chance
to make their dollars go farther,” he said.