The Nenana river is located immediately adjacent to Denali National Park and Preserve and passes by the McKinley Village where the Host had an overnight stay. The river is glacier fed. There was a sign saying that a Grizzly bear had recently been seen immediately by this property. This river and the surrounding territory is both beautiful and dangerous.

Sustainable, Affordable Housing

What does this mean?*

• Housing. The housing must be market-competitive quality that can blend in to its neighborhood. Thus we are explicitly excluding substandard locations, configurations, constructions, maintenance. Such 'structures' -- to use the Kenyan euphemism -- may be 'shelter' but are not housing.
• Affordable. The housing must be affordable for its target market. This means what the householder pays. Affordability must also continue throughout the expected life of the tenancy.
• Sustainable. Housing quality and housing affordability must continue over the housing's expected useful life (typically 30-50+ years). This implies that the housing must take in enough cash flow to cover its expenditures, including capital expenditures.

* Source: Affordable Housing Institute

Quick Start to Keeping Kurrent

Our lives are busy. Keeping Kurrent is the place where you can listen to short, reasonably in depth interviews and presentations about a variety of issues, ideas and trends are helpful to you. You are invited to take a quick look some of the broad issues we cover by clicking on the items listed below. Or, you can also examine the details for each category by checking the statements on the right hand side of this page.

• Seniors and Boomers Speak Up
• Travel
• Fine Arts
• Environment
• Education
• Your Health Matters
• Food Security
• Quality Communities

Willamette West Habitat for Humanity

MIlton Dennis, Executive Director of the Willamette West Habitat for Humanity program, Melanie St John, Board Member and Bill Gellatly, Site Manager of the Willamette West, Habitat for Humanity. They are standing in the hallway at Oregon Public Broadcasting.

They shared stories about their efforts to eliminate substandard housing. This organization is part of Habitat for Humanity International. They talked about their Lindsay Lane in Hillsboro, Oregon as well as Leadership Row, a housing project in Beaverton, Oregon.

You can find out more about them at Willamette West HFH web site.

Work on Affordable, Sustainable Housing, is carried on throughout the world. This picture shows one of the HFH volunteers in New Zealand who is developing housing that meets the needs of residents in that country. You can find out more about Habitat for Humanity International by turning to their HFH web site.

Habitat for Humanity is an organization that gives people an opportunity to help build their own homes and then purchase them. President Jimmy Carter, a frequent Habitat for Humanity volunteer, has said, "With Habitat, we build more than just houses. We build families, community and hope."

The Keeping Kurrent host, Wayne Potter, visited New Zealand during March 2005. During that same time, a friend, Alicia Polacok, also visited there to be a HBH project leader. Alicia spoke about of her experiences to varying groups of people. She was also kind enough to be interviewed for Keeping Kurrent. Her interview aired on Keeping Kurrent on June 29, 2005. You can find out more about the New Zealand HBH program by clicking on their web site.

Page last edited on September 2, 2009