100 New Homes In Five Days

CBS Correspondent Harry Smith reports, as you look in the face of Jimmy Carter, you see a man at home in his role as a builder. He's competent, determined and dogged, even in the 100 degree Houston heat.

"We didn't have running water or electricity on our farm until I was fourteen years old. And my daddy did all the carpenter work and I helped him," Carter said.

Carter is one of 6,000 volunteers that have come to Houston for a week to build 100 houses. It's another project of Habitat for Humanity, whose global goal is to provide decent housing for poor people.

The conversion in Houston is taking place in the second and fifth wards. Neighborhoods desperate for renewal.

Paul Leonards convinced 25 of his friends and family members to pay their own way from North Carolina to come build a house in Houston. It's a summer vacation they'll never forget.

Leonard said, "you feel like you're sacrificing. But, then you get a blessing from doing this and that is the way we all feel. We're getting a lot more out of it than we're putting into it."

The volunteers probably get this feeling because they work side by side with people like Tabitha Truscott, a single mom with a full time job and a perfect candidate for a habitat house.

"I was out there in June. Heat of the day, I was out there building my house with a wonderful group of people," Truscott said.

Tabitha spent 250 hours working on her house before the volunteers showed up. Building a kind of equity habitat believes is as good as the down payment she might never have been able to afford. Come Saturday she'll get an interest free mortgage and a home of her own.

One hundred new homes in just five days. That's incredible. But, Jimmy Carter, who arrives at dawn and works till dusk, says something more important is being built this week. A bridge between rich and poor.

"Most people watching this program who are wealthy don't know a poor family well enough to have a cup of coffee with them, visit their house, get to know their teenage kids, or god forbid invite them to our house. We don't do it. We think about it. We pray about it. We brag about it. We don't ever do it," Carter said.

Here the desire for a decent place to live and the willingness to work for it is something everyone has in common.

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