University of Virginia Library

Volunteer Students Working With Area Housing Problems

By Steve Scott

Self-help is one of the best means of
improving one's situation. However, many
people have neither the ability nor the materials
to make the necessary improvements. If the
needed improvements are in the area of living
conditions, then the Madison Hall Work
Projects Program can supply the missing
elements.

The people involved in this program call
themselves SCRUB (Students Concerned with
Rural and Urban Betterment), but the work
does not retain the connotation of our space
age society. These students do not tear down or
abandon the area of need, but through minor
repairs such as painting, plumbing, carpentry,
plastering, masonry and minor electrical work,
they build up and improve the homes of those
who do not have the resources to do it
themselves.

The students involved come from various
backgrounds, some with experience in
construction-related fields, and some with
nothing more than a desire to help. The
experience is welcomed, the desire to help is
mandatory. Manpower is the greatest demand,
and energy, concern and direction are the only
prerequisites.

Hands without materials can do nothing.
Houses are made of lumber, tar paper, bricks
and paint, and these materials are necessary to
make repairs. No merchant can stay in business
by giving his wares away, yet Mr. Spencer of
Better Living, Inc., and Mr. Schwab of Alcova,
Inc. have been generously donating needed
materials.

North 29 Paint and Supply Company has
extended to Madison Hall the opportunity to
buy materials at wholesale prices. The money
lot this has come from sources such as the Law
Wives Association and St. Thomas Parish,
which has been supporting the program with
weekly donations.

Additionally, many of the families who have
requested assistance have supplied their own
materials, and it is not at all rare for these same
people to donate additional money and
materials for other projects.

The volunteers involved in the Work Projects
program have completed twenty-two jobs this
year and have aided the efforts of other groups
on eleven additional projects. Five more jobs
are planned for the remaining weeks of school.
The program will remain in operation this
summer, and workers are needed to make it
effective.

For students who will be in Charlottesville
during the summer, a low income housing
project is in the offing. This will be financed by
a local land company and will use architecture
students, law students and other student
volunteers to minimize costs.