WUNC News; Outhouses

mr head it's a little four room house on a gravel road it's the floorboards aren't biased in the furniture and so but the house spotless and takes pride in place especially her behalf of modesty by eight room that has all the manifesto for me or hurt mr haddon is sixty three she waited sixty one of those years to get a bathroom back when she was growing up in lee county everyone she knew live the old timey way they told it water from a well or spraying it took baths in big metal wash tubs and they all used outhouses my right richard wright as chatham county modernized esther hadn't learned what it was like to use the bathroom they were bathrooms where she worked packing chicken at the local poultry plant or cleaning rooms of the farrington and but those jobs never paid her enough to be able to raise a family and put in plumbing and she still have an outhouse to this

day if not for the north carolina rural community assistance program it the rural community assistance program is a small local nonprofit group in downtown pittsboro the bathroom project which began in nineteen ninety eight is funded by a hundred fifty thousand dollars in grants from the us department of agriculture the group relies on free labor from local community college students to build the bathrooms and volunteers to finish up the plumbing and electrical work sharing upon the assistant director says the project is called the save housing initiative obviously living without indoor plumbing is sung here at least a health hazard because of inadequate treatment of the waste and for many people a safety hazard because while households that we work with are elderly householders in they're taking that hundred foot track in the middle of the winter you know below freezing weather ice on the ground is certainly a safety hazard more

than two percent of chatham county households lack indoor plumbing according to the us census that's about four hundred fifty homes that number seemed surprisingly high considering the chatham county is right on the fringe of research triangle park known for its corporate headquarters and gated communities but the palm says the new prosperity hasn't extended to alter low income residents like esther hadn't definitely all the new development economic growth that has occurred in this region has just bypass them here you know they were on that train lawrence hadn't wasn't on the prosperity train lawrence no relation to esther hadn't built his small house on the outskirts of pittsboro in nineteen fifty seven he took part in the dollar down program or government assistance plan for people who couldn't afford a down payment for a house oria duty and also a new but the framework and he's just this is that inside this thing and onions but hadn't retired janitor didn't do any plumbing or

without the blue willow belden and so you couldn't do that well what was the problem adams' house likes insulation and part of the ceiling is falling in in place of the kitchen sink there's a small metal washed up on the table and a dozen plastic jugs to tilt water from a neighbor's house passed the law is this what you had since nineteen fifty seven seas you again and that's the good news it's the last outpost that he'll have to use one of the bathrooms under construction at the community college has had his name on it it'll be in his house by next winter and that delights him the rural community assistance program has installed seven bathroom so far with four more in the pipeline it's a long slow process

between digging a well and septic field and getting the necessary permits and the group has a waiting list of people who still need bathrooms for w and c news i'm leda hartman in pittsboro