Archive: Around Town

The Habitat For Humanity house on Breed Road in Lansing is scheduled to be completed before the end of next month.  While construction got off to a slow start, work on the house has been progressing through the winter to the point where Habitat officials say the family will be able to move into the house in April.

"The exterior completely finished," says Habitat for Humanity of Tompkins and Cortland Counties Board of Directors President Angela Loh.  "The dry wall is up.  What's next is the mudding, sanding, and painting.  The floors and cabinets are all waiting to be put in.  Bumblebee Painters is donating their painting services, so it will be primed and painted very quickly.  One, two, three and it's going to be done."


The house is one-storey, built on a slab with radiant heat plumbing built into the floor.  It includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living/dining room, mud room, and kitchen.  It has been built on a seven acre lot, most of which is reserved for a conservation easement.  Delays that had largely to do with fitting a septic system and the house on the piece of the property that is not reserved for conservation and that could actually hold a house and septic system pushed the actual start date to July.  But with added build dates, special women's build days, and help from local college students, church members, and others, Loh says the house will be completed around March 20.

She says that Amber Little will be able to move into the house with her two young sons Maleki  and Maximus soon after that.  Little found herself at the center of a controversy when she was fired from a Cost Cutters hair salon a few months ago.  The company had instituted a new policy that required workers to sell hair care products equal to 15% of the money they took in cutting hair.  When Little was not able to meet the quota she was fired.  That could have put her eligibility for the house at risk, even though she and her family already had 500 hours of 'sweat equity' in the project.

Tompkins County Workers' Center organized a protest, which included an admonition on Craig's List for patrons to shun Cost Cutters and organized a rally to support Little and other employees.  The company's policy seemed at odds with a concurrent attempt to prevent workers from unionizing.  But Little started a new job at 'A Personal Touch' in the Small Mall at the beginning of February.

"She was laid off," Loh says.  "We don't know the details of that.  We obviously don't get involved in that kind of thing, but our family partner Sally Hoyt did help Amber find something.  She started working again within two weeks.  For Habitat she is fine.  One of our requirements is that the family has a steady income, and Amber is doing that."

Her new employer is sponsoring a benefit they are calling "Haircuts for Humanity" on March first from 9:00am - 3:00pm.  Little will give haircuts to patrons, and the proceeds will go to Habitat for Humanity of Tompkins and Cortland Counties.


Little's house will be the thirteenth the Tompkins and Cortland chapter has built since 1988, and the first to be built in Lansing.  Others were built in Groton, Cortland, McLean, Spencer, Homer, and Ithaca.  In 2007 the chapter adopted a 'green build' policy.  The first house to be built under the policy, on Tompkins Street in Cortland, received an Energy Star rebate of about $3000.

The next site is at 6 Wellesley Drive in the Village of Dryden, the first of two houses the chapter has committed to building this year.  The second will be at 33 Arthur Avenue in Cortland.  Loh says that money and volunteers are always needed, but notes that people get excited about being part of projects in their own communities.  The  chapter is planning a dedication of the Lansing site on April 10th, a Saturday morning.

"Contributors, Better Housing, and certainly the families and the volunteers themselves will be invited to the dedication," Loh says.  "We want everybody to celebrate Amber actually getting her house.  We want to thank everybody for pulling together and building it.  It's been quite a project."

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