Habitat World editor Bill Walsh traveled to Jackson, Miss., for the "Make a Difference TODAY" build. For more information on Habitat's recovery role along the gulf coast, see After the Deluge.

To the Manor Borne

by Bill Walsh

People living in poverty and in the substandard housing that generally accompanies their modest pay packets are getting a lot of attention these days, thanks to home makeover shows, including, in the United States, the wildly popular "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Renovate My Family." They themselves are takeoffs on similar popular fare in Great Britain.

The spotlight shining so brightly is both good and not-so-good news for Habitat for Humanity.

The premise of the shows is that there are folks under assault from various outrageous fortunes, and they deserve a helping hand in the form of a renovated home. For television's purposes, renovation generally means razing and rebuilding. In terms of ratings, rebuilding generally comes in a one-size-fits-all format--extra large.

There is no question about the outrageousness of the fortunes that bring the families to the screen. One family selected for a recent show--reportedly, some 15,000 apply for every lucky one chosen--was headed by a fairly recently widowed woman and her three daughters. On top of losing a spouse and parent, the women lost their home to fire and had been living in a shed with no plumbing or heat for nine months.

The mother worked, holding down a low-wage position in the cafeteria of the local junior high school, but she was not going to get a more decent roof overhead without a helping hand.

It's a story with which every Habitat volunteer, donor, sponsor and employee is familiar.

But this "Extreme Makeover" family got a little bit more than the simple, decent, affordable home that Habitat volunteers and partner families erect. She got a 3,200-square-foot manor outfitted with every amenity known to man.

Such television grandeur is not exceptional. A makeover in Kansas City, Mo., resulted in a 4,200-square-foot estate with "...game rooms, fountains, fireplaces and flat-screen TVs in virtually every room, hardwood floors, mosaic tiles and granite countertops," according to a story in The Chicago Tribune.

The good news for Habitat is that television is helping spread word of the housing plight facing so many. But there is a flip side, and it is cause for concern.

For a start, the extreme to which television is willing--nay, eager--to go for the  recipients of its charity may instigate a backlash that could affect everyone in need of decent housing--Habitat families included--and every organization that strives to provide it--Habitat included.

Indeed, it may have begun already. "They seem to build such extravagant houses for these families," muses one participant on a Christian Internet forum. "I always thought that if they took the amount of money that it probably takes them to do these luxury homes for one family, they could probably build nice but simple homes for an entire block...."

Indeed they could. At least one made-over house has been valued in excess of $1 million. Another was valued at nearly $700,000, a third at close to $600,000--eye-popping figures, even in a real estate market gone crazy, the subject of another report in this issue. How families of modest means will pay upkeep and taxes in the days ahead is anyone's guess.

The backlash likely has a psychological component, as well. So-called reality television shows have determined that "bathos" is the new "reality," opines columnist Ruth Ann Dailey, "and any psychologically healthy adult who tries to keep up with this hyperemotional rhythm,"--and, given the ratings these shows generate, that's a number in the tens of millions--"will soon feel either exhausted or nauseated."

And that's the danger. People who are mentally exhausted do not volunteer to put in long, challenging days on construction sites. People who are psychologically nauseated do not write checks in support of a cause they can so easily--and so mistakenly--identify with the virus that has made them ill.

There are two critically important messages that Habitat employees, volunteers, donors and sponsors need to continue hammering home to counter any negative reactions that may develop. Those two messages likewise enable a piggybacking on the positive help the makeover shows provide when they publicize the problem of substandard housing.

• Television is characterized by giveaways: Habitat is not. In addition to a modest down payment and monthly mortgage payments, Habitat homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labor--"sweat equity"--into building their home and the homes of others.
  
  
• The second is captured in a sign that graces many of the exits of Habitat buildings at the organization's headquarters here in Americus, Ga.: "Your efforts today helped provide homes for 60 more Habitat families."

Those are extremely important makeover messages that must continue to reach a caring audience.