Teens build home from inside jail

Teens incarcerated at the state Department of Juvenile Justice hammered the first nails of a home they will build on Friday.  

The department is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to let the youth doing time build the frame of a house behind the fences of its Columbia facility.

Once its finished in a month, two cranes will lift it over the razor wire fence and load it onto trucks that will take it to be installed, finished and decorated by other state youth community service programs. 

The partnership is the first of its kind in the nation, which Central South Carolina Habitat for Humanity Director Roy Kramer said he hopes to take to headquarters to be implemented everywhere. 

DJJ Director Margaret Barber said at the ceremony that the team hopes it will be the first of many houses and walls for Habitat homes to be built “behind the fence” and that a lot of people will benefit from the project. 

The Teens 

Some of the teens serving time at the rehabilitative facility were convicted of damaging property or breaking into homes, so Barber said having them work on someone else’s home fits into the DJJ “restorative justice” model.  

Each day ten youths will pair up with six Habitat instructors who will show them the tricks of the trade for four hours. Barber said they will leave the center better off than when they got there, and that they will have certification and photos of their handy work in hand so they can show potential employers exactly what they can do.

The hope is that having a marketable skills and real experience to match will make their transitions into adulthood smoother. Some teens have already requested to work every shift of the first five days, and Barber says many have said they’re excited to do something new and help others.

"It is almost as if they have something to live for in a way. They're going to come out to a site, they're going to build a house and they are very, very excited. It's given them a burst of energy and its given staff a new burst of energy," Barber said. 

The woman who will receive the first home, who asked to just go by Ms. Jackson, said that she has been to many Habitat build sites and that the encouragement and support people give each other will be transformative for the teens at DJJ. 

“I’ve been working with kids with behavior problems and can see the change in their eyes and them grow from the love that you can give them by showing them how to work and just how to live and deal with every day problems,” Jackson said. 

The Family

 Jackson is a single mother to her 17-year-old son Baryn, who has Cerebral Palsy and requires a wheelchair and special care because of his severe mental and physical disabilities.

She works at a local school district’s transportation department full time, but also has a part time job helping care for other disabled children. The subsidized apartment the two have shared for 16 years isn’t accommodating to caring for Baryn and has serious plumbing and mold issues.  

“To be able to make revisements to my home to help me take care of my son, because I am a single parent, it’ll be just so awesome. It’ll be a big burden lifted off of me,” Jackson said. 

She said having a full sized bathroom with a shower will be the most exciting feature. “I won’t have to give him bed baths, I can give him showers. He loves water,” she said through a grin. She said she’ll be wielding her hammer right along side the teens and passing on the skills she’s already learned building other people’s houses.  

The Charity 

Once a family has gone through an application process and gets approved by Habitat, they must put in time helping the organization: 350 hours of “sweat equity” for a single parent, and 500 for a married couple. It can take a couple of years. Kramer said they also so through a series of classes, from termite control and financial training to health and nutrition advice, so that when they hand over the keys the family can succeed.  

“We’re hoping to get someone in a home who’s educated, in fact its something that everyone should go through,” Kramer said. “In our 26 years here we’ve only had seven foreclosures and we’ve built 215 homes and a bank can’t touch that.” 

The organization sets up a interest-free mortgage, which most families pay about $300 a month for, and have free financial counseling should they fall behind. He said most families fully own their homes in 16 to 20 years. Though the sluggish economy has slowed down donations, Kramer said the group is still finding ways to get people in safe, permanent homes by moving people into “rehabs”: existing homes the group renovates for the family’s needs and to help neighborhoods ward off blight.  

To find a Habitat for Humanity chapter serving your area and apply for a home or to volunteer call 1-800-422-4828 or visit www.habitat.org.