Rebuilding Lives by Tearing Down Old Houses

A charity in Baltimore is helping people put their lives back together by taking old houses apart. Details Deconstruction employs people with a history of incarceration, addiction, and other problems, sending teams to work sites as far away as Florida and Massachusetts. And it won a contract from the City of Baltimore to take down blighted rowhouses.

Details Deconstruction also has an environmental mission. Unlike traditional demolition services, it recycles or reuses everything possible. And because it is a nonprofit, property owners who use the service and donate salvaged building materials can get a tax break.

The venture was started by Humanim, an entrepreneurial social-service charity in the city. Humanim’s other enterprises include a document-scanning service and a catering company and food-business incubator.

Humanim intensified its social-enterprise efforts eight years ago, when it renovated and moved into a historic building in East Baltimore, a neighborhood where unemployment topped 30 percent.

“When we got there, we were providing job training and job placement, but we realized that it really wasn’t enough,” says Cindy Plavier-Truitt, the nonprofit’s chief business officer. “We also needed to be a job creator.”

The deconstruction business seemed like a good fit because it requires many workers. Details’ 45 employees gain work experience and earn competitive wages and benefits. The operation spawned another business, Brick + Board, which sells wood, bricks, and architectural details salvaged from the tear-downs.

The business ventures bring in nearly $8 million of Humanim’s $38 million budget.

The nonprofit has to navigate the tension between its goal of increasing revenue from its businesses and its mission to improve lives, Ms. Plavier-Truitt says.

“The folks who we want to employ need a lot of training and support,” she says. “It’s more expensive to run a business where that piece of it is ingrained in what we do, and trying to work with folks who need the most help.”