‘Shack-a-thon’ advocates affordable housing

By Brian McNeill

Published: April 3, 2008

Alli Davis, a second-year University of Virginia student, broke down several cardboard boxes, lashed them together with duct tape and began building herself a shelter for the night.
“I have no idea what this thing is going to look like,” said Davis, one of 45 students who slept outside at UVa Wednesday night. “I’m starting from the bottom and working my up.”
To draw attention to the lack of affordable housing in the Charlottesville region and elsewhere, the UVa students held a “shack-a-thon” competition to see who could build the best cardboard box shelter in the university’s grassy amphitheater.
“Who wouldn’t want to sleep in the amphitheater overnight in a cardboard box?” Davis joked.
Most of the students are regular volunteers with the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Davis has helped build houses with the organization for the past two semesters.
Wednesday’s event was sponsored by Habitat and was part of a national week of student advocacy for affordable housing.
“A whole bunch of guys from our fraternity came out,” said Jaryd Waegerle, a first-year nursing student who was stacking boxes to make an igloo-style shelter. “We think it’s for a great cause.”
Prior to the “shack-a-thon,” the students heard from Larry Scott, who obtained a loan in 2006 from Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville that allowed him to purchase his first home.
“Now I can look you in the eye. I can walk with a strut,” said Scott, who lives in Charlottesville with his wife and daughter. “I came from the streets. I came from the projects. That doesn’t mean I have to stay there.”
Overton McGehee, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, said the UVa students are an important part of an effort that he hopes will one day eliminate homelessness and unaffordable housing.
“In a society as wealthy as ours, everybody who gets sleepy at night should be able to have a simple, decent and affordable place to live,” he said. “We just need the will to do it.”
Across the United States, 37.5 million people spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. And an estimated 17 million people pay more than half of their income on housing, said John Snook, director of state and local relations for Habitat for Humanity.
“For many people, it’s a struggle to put food on the table because of the cost of housing,” he said.