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Trip Description

The Hinton Rural Life Center in Cherokee County, North Carolina is a non-profit that provides affordable houses to families. Given that the average cost of building/buying a house has increased by 80%, yet average wages have not increased significantly, many families cannot afford to buy a house. Hinton Rural Life Center provides expertise and labor, largely from volunteers, eliminating expensive contractors to provide affordable houses. Though all the families work on the houses and none can move in until all houses are built, volunteers provide the majority of labor and assistance.

Relevant Issues

This trip dealt with issues of affordable housing, cost of living and poverty. The cost of living for an average family is increasing. More and more do families have to decide between food, medicine and rent/mortgage, a conflict that often leads to diminished quality of life and psychological stress. Recent statistics indicate that for every 100 very low-income renters, only 76 affordable rental units are available. Between 1997 and 2001 the number of available units declined 13%. With a lack of affordable housing and the 14.8 million U.S households that make $10,000 or less per year, there is a desperate need for low-income housing.

Students were encouraged to explore the issue of housing on a National level and also reflect on how it applied to the area they were working in. Underlying these themes were questions about causes of poverty, the need for affordable housing and understanding of how different elements of economics affect the ability for families to own homes. 

 

 

Student Experiences

 

When asked to rank the trip as a whole, students gave the trip an average of 9.5 and left some really positive comments!


Favorite part of the week?

“Hanging out with my group and discovering a deep gratitude of the homeowners for our service.”

 

“Hanging out with the group and getting to know the homeowners that we were helping. I liked learning new skills.”

 

“Knowing that our work made it so all the residents could finally move into their houses.”

 

What aspect of this trip challenged you the most?

“Finding the motivation to do a cruddy job: installing insulation. Once I realized that once we were done the residents could move in, finding motivation was pretty easy.”

 

How worthwhile was this trip for you?

“I made a new family, learned new skills, helped people who needed and were grateful- so very worthwhile.”

 

“Very worthwhile. All the residents were extremely appreciative of our work and that felt good.”

 

“The most worthwhile it could be. I am leaving Hinton with a joy in my heart that was not apparent before the spring of ’08.”

 

Also!!!

In preparation for the trip, students were given a sheet with various questions about both factual/qualitative knowledge and issue-based, philosophical knowledge. We asked these questions to see the impact the trip had on the group’s understanding of the issues and whether they gained more perspective and insight. Check out the results here!