Deconstruction Project at Broadmoor Bluffs
Photo Credits: Anleu, Billie Stanton. “ON UNSOLID GROUND: Newcomer Nearly Buys House on Landslide Property.” Gazette, 15 Oct. 2016. Swanson, Conrad. “Habitat for Humanity salvages and recycles from Colorado Springs landslide-devastated homes.” Gazette, 2 Jul. 2019. Photos by Chancey Bush, The Gazette. Dominguez, Alexis. “Items from Broadmoor Bluffs salvaged by Habitat for Humanity after landslide.” KRDO, 2 Jul. 2019.
Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity ReStore is partnering with the City of Colorado Springs Office of Emergency Management in the deconstruction of several homes in the Broadmoor Bluffs community of Colorado Springs. Now, almost three years after these homes were declared disaster sites by FEMA, the dozen homes on the federal buyout list are being sold and the families are moving.
“It started with small cracks…”
Some of the homeowners affected had been in their home since the 1990's.“It started with small cracks,” one homeowner said in a 2016 interview; they were not aware of the history of the area, nor that the land was never an ideal option for construction. In hopes of seeing some positive impact from this tragic situation, PPHFH volunteers will salvage as much construction material as possible, before the homes are completely demolished. Not only will this prevent more materials ending up in our landfills, many of the extracted materials will be resold at the ReStore to benefit the mission of PPHFH. Each volunteer hour used to remove, load, sort and price the aforementioned materials will be tracked in order to reimburse the homeowners. The sale of their home will most likely not be close to market value, so as many hours as we can record toward these projects will be greatly appreciated.
You can volunteer on this monumental project by contacting our Volunteer Coordinator, Sarah Buchen at (719) 290-1969 or at volunteer@pikespeakhabitat.org.
"'It's not that we're just going to come in and bulldoze this house, it's benefiting all of El Paso County and will build new affordable homes. So this one home will help build a home for 8 to 10 other families. All the memories the homeowners made, it's obviously changing, but nothing is going to waste,' said Maggie Williams, Donor Relations Manager."
- Alexis Dominguez, Reporter for KRDO Newschannel 13
"Slowly, deliberately, the city — through grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — is buying the landslide-battered houses at very discounted prices. Already negotiated into each buyout is about 200 hours of volunteer time for ReStore crews, valued at $26 an hour, White and Brenner acknowledged. Those hours can save homeowners more than $5,000 off their grant match costs.
And then the items collected are pumped back into the community at reasonable prices, White said. A pair of elaborate glass front doors that normally would cost about $5,000, for example, will be sold at the ReStore for a fifth of that."
- Conrad Swanson, Reporter for Colorado Springs Gazette