By Day 2 of the Jimmy Carter Work Project, the neighborhood in Detroit was already a changed place.

Outward Bound (continued)

Other cities struggle with challenges at the opposite end of the spectrum. Land costs have soared in Wake County, N.C., for example. Home to state capital Raleigh and host to abundant government employees, high-tech software developers and multiple colleges and universities, Wake County, says Habitat for Humanity executive director Woody Yates, has little land left for office, industrial, and residential development, forcing builders to erect higher-end structures to recoup their land investment.

The price for a developable Habitat lot grew from $8,000 in 2000 to more than $25,000 in 2004. Meanwhile, median home prices have climbed from $98,500 in 1990 to $168,000 in 2002 and just over $200,000 in 2005. Homes selling in excess of $250,000 are the fastest growing segment of the housing market. More than 55 percent of the city's low-income households (those earning less than 80 percent of median family income) pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.

Habitat can work very effectively to address the first set of problems, in the distressed neighborhoods of Detroit and similar cities, because it doesn't face the same market considerations that discourage commercial builders. It can select low-income families, and in partnership with the city and other advocates of the urban poor, be in the frontline fight, ultimately, to create an environment attractive to other builders. It turns  hopelessness into hope.

This two-pronged approach to urban renewal--advocacy and partnership--is a long-term process, but one that achieves results. Advocacy for affordable housing, usually accomplished in cooperation with other urban housing providers, raises awareness of the need for affordable housing--and the opportunities for creating it.

On the partnership side, the players at the table need to reflect the whole range of issues that must be addressed to turn a neighborhood around--education, law enforcement, employment.

"The job is only half done unless attention is paid to the conditions surrounding poverty housing," Mogk says. "Even if it takes 10 years, as long as something good happens each year, it's a success."

As in Raleigh, N.C., and similar cities, the challenge lies more in removing obstacles than in creating opportunities.

Though housing is a critical ingredient in urban revitalization, myriad other factors, from education to law enforcement, play a role.

"The regulatory barriers put in place by local governments are one of our greatest challenges," says Lori Vaclavik, executive director of Metro Denver Habitat for Humanity. "There are regulations that require minimum square-footage sizes, mandatory amounts of brick on exteriors, parking requirements, minimum setbacks and other requirements that add substantial cost to the construction of a home. We are working to raise awareness that since decent and affordable housing is a vital community need, there should be incentives and policies that make it easier--not harder--to produce."

Indeed. "One big factor in our affiliate has been the dramatic increase in Systems Development Charges that are also known as 'impact fees' and various other names in other parts of the country," says Les Alford, former president of Bend Area Habitat in Oregon. Alford says that Habitat home costs have risen from about $30,000 in 1990 to the mid 70s today, a 150 percent increase. About 20 percent of the increase is for the SDC fees.

SDC, he explains, "is money charged by the local government to supposedly compensate for the increased roads, schools, services and so on brought about by new housing. Attempts to get waivers for low-income housing have been futile."

"And there is always a challenge with NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard),"Vaclavik adds, "which comes from incorrect stereotypes and perceptions about who 'those people' are who need affordable housing, coupled with a perception that affordable housing must be poor-quality and 'cheap.' People still don't understand that 'those people' help them at the bank, wait on them in restaurants, watch and teach their children."

More than 1,000 volunteers and prospective homeowners gathered in Detroit in June to build 30 houses in a week during the Jimmy Carter Work Project--construction activities the likes of which local residents had not seen in decades.

Joy Clark, hammer in hand and equipped with the same determination that has kept her in school and working, built a new house and a new opportunity in an old neighborhood.

"We're hoping we can have an impact," she says. "We're going to break some barriers."