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This story reports on saving homes from destruction to provide quality homes for families and individuals. This story was first reported in June 2000. 

This old house is still in pretty good shape, but its newly rich owners wanted something bigger and better on their expensive Los Altos lot. Instead of bulldozing the house, as other newly rich Silicon Valley owners have been doing lately, they decided to give it away to the city of East Palo Alto.

Roger Gaw is a Los Altos homeowner who wants to donate a house; "We paid a lot of money to have the house moved here. And someone gets a home. So it works for everybody." 

The idea quickly caught on. A tax break for well to do home builders and a nearly free home for a needy family, add up to good business for real estate agents. 

Christina Luiz is a real estate agent in Silicon Valley. "I personally own two homes that could be used. I talked to one of my other builders, and they said, they too, would be willing to donate the homes in perfect condition. And I said, how could I do this, and East Palo Alto told me, we're getting calls from people who want to donate for tax reasons." In no time, the city of East Palo Alto found itself with eight donated houses. 

Mayor Sharifa Wilson says of the situation, "One of the dilemmas that East Palo Alto has is that we don't own any property. So the dilemma is what do we do with the houses that people offer us?"

Over the past few decades, East Palo Alto has been an island of difficulty in a world of affluence. Poverty, drugs and drive-by shootings earned it the title "murder capital," a few years back. Now it's benefiting from a trickle down effect from its wealthy neighbors. Once it figures out how to handle the windfall and share the wealth. 

Mayor Sharifa W ilson says, "I can imagine at some point everybody will be screaming, give me the house, give me the house. This kind of thing. That's the only thing I'm a little bit leery about." 

For East Palo Alto, it's an embarrassment of riches. More houses than they know what to do with.

Further notes:

Over 1.5 billion people throughout the world do not have decent housing. There are organizations and groups trying to provide housing for the needy. One such organization is Habitat for Humanity that began in 1976 and since then, has built 90,000 homes. Although a Christian organization, Habitat works with people of all faiths. Each family receiving a home must help with the building along with volunteers from the community. Former President Jimmy Carter is Habitat’s most famous volunteer.