To help Habitat for Humanity afford to build other housing for low-income people, volunteers are salvaging usable materials from 27 now-vacant homes in Midvale that the Utah Department of Transportation bought to demolish in clearing way for Interstate 15 widening.
“Years ago, UDOT was just basically demolishing homes and taking them to the landfill,” said Ed Blake, director of Salt Lake Valley Habitat for Humanity. “We approached UDOT about letting us go in and salvage all the materials we could.”
UDOT agreed, and Habitat for Humanity has been doing that now for six years. It has salvaged materials from 130 homes so far, not counting the 27 it is now working on.