CANDLER – Editor's note: this article was originally published on Sunday, November 26, 2006.

Courtesy of the Asheville Citizen-Times

With the help of college students studying construction and Neighborhood Housing Services of Asheville, a local family will be able to spend the holidays next year in a new home.

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College students are working to build an approximately 1,200-square-foot modular home to be sold to Neighborhood Housing Services for placement in West Asheville and purchase by a qualified buyer of low to moderate income. The house should be completed before summer.


"We not only get a good quality house, but students are able to go through a learning process to create this home," said Sarah Brown, marketing manager at Neighborhood Housing Services, a nonprofit organization that provides affordable home ownership opportunities.

The house, which is being built in two 14-by-48-foot units using sustainable building guidelines, also meets the requirements of the N.C. HealthyBuilt Homes program offered by the WNC Green Building Council and Asheville Home Builders Association.

Neighborhood Housing Services will buy the house for about $100,000, its approximate cost, and provide low-cost financing for the purchaser. With the average sales price for an existing home in the Asheville market topping $250,000 in 2005, according to figures from the N.C. Board of Realtors, there is a demand for lower cost housing in the area, Brown said.

"There's a huge disparity between what houses cost here and what working people can afford," she said.

A-B Tech plans to continue the program and build more modular homes once the inaugural unit is completed. Ken Czarnomski, department chairman for construction management technology at A-B Tech, said the combination of student involvement, environmentally friendly design and affordable housing distribution make the college's program unique.

"I don't know of anyone else doing anything like that," he said.

About 36 A-B Tech students from disciplines such as carpentry, electronics technology and welding are involved in the building project, which is taking place in a warehouse the college has leased from Colbond Inc. near the school's Enka Campus.

"It gives us a chance to provide students with the opportunity for experience with a building method other than traditional site-built homes," said Vernon Daugherty, dean of engineering and applied technology at A-B Tech. "There's a family that needs affordable housing that this time next year, will be living in it," he added. "That's something we feel very positive about."

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