00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home. There is a lot to know, but we've got you covered. This is around the house. Welcome to the round the house show. The next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. I'm Eric G and this is our weekday update.

[00:00:34] Eric Goranson: This is what didn't fit into last week's show. And it isn't going to fit into next weekend's show as well. And we've got so much going on today. I wanted to talk about something that I saw in the news, and it's a little bit of an expansion of what we saw that I talked about a week or two ago, in that they are looking to add new energy mandates for brand new homes that are being constructed, including low income ones.

[00:00:57] Eric Goranson: And the issue that I'm seeing with this, [00:01:00] and it is significant, and I want to talk about it because we're so worried about affordable housing. But the problem that we're looking at is that these new mandates that they're putting together for, they're trying to get it into, they're going to be doing it with low income housing, but HUD housing, that kind of stuff.

[00:01:17] Eric Goranson: But they're trying to slide it in to go in with all the different FHA, Freddie Mac, those type of home mortgages. But they're going to be mandating this new energy standard, which of course is going to add to the house cost at the end, which doesn't help us with affordable housing. And here's my concern.

[00:01:38] Eric Goranson: I have no problem with energy rebates. I have no problem with affordable housing and of course being better with the environment. That's not the problem. My issue that I'm worried about is That when we add seven to maybe 10, 000 to the price of a home, that does not help that person that's trying to get into that home.[00:02:00]

[00:02:00] Eric Goranson: And we have so much regulation already that is costing money to get in. If I go here in the city of Portland, for instance, and I go build. You know, an affordable house there for somebody that is sitting there in the city. They could hit me with a 40 or 50, 000 site development fee, which in some states they've now ruled as unconstitutional.

[00:02:22] Eric Goranson: But these are the problems we run into. And it's not that they had to bring in utilities there because this could be a house that burned down and you're trying to replace it. And you're tearing it down to put something else in its place. So these are concerns that I have out there that we're adding mandates, which of course it will save people in the long run.

[00:02:42] Eric Goranson: In theory, it's going to save them more on their power bills. But if you're adding another seven to 10, 000 to the overall price of a home, we're going the wrong way, guys. We're going the wrong way. And I think what we need to see is for us to get affordable housing where we want it to be. I think we need to turn around and make [00:03:00] that where we're making for affordable housing.

[00:03:03] Eric Goranson: We're making that exempt from any of these fee structures. I see him paying. If you've got to pay a few thousand bucks for a permit, that's one thing. But so many major cities out there have made it so expensive and nearly impossible to do this. And then you get cities in there that are trying to build their own version of it, and cities are not good home builders.

[00:03:24] Eric Goranson: And they're taking these projects on themselves, and of course the project price is 50 to 100 percent more than if you had a private builder building it. And it's not any better of a building. If anything, there's just more red tape. So I think as a society here in the United States, we need to start paying attention to how we're doing this because it's so haphazard and I agree with us coming in and making things more efficient.

[00:03:51] Eric Goranson: But I also think that forcing brand new construction for affordable have housing to have high end HVAC units in [00:04:00] there just to save a couple of dollars, but you're going to hit them with another seven to 10, 000 bucks in additional prices. That's a little out of control. And I think that's one thing. And then another thing is here to get, I want to, this is something that we're going to explore a little bit more in future episodes, but my buddy, Brandon Eisen has been covering this in Chicago and talk about affordable housing.

[00:04:24] Eric Goranson: They have a problem there that has been just shocking where they have in their subsidized housing. I think we need to come up with a way to have a, if you're in government housing, I think you should have. A bill of rights that says what you should be delivered as affordable housing. I think it should be something that is safe.

[00:04:48] Eric Goranson: It should be something that is mold free. It should be something that has heat running water. All of these things that we all take for granted. That these guys are [00:05:00] not doing some of these homes that I've seen that the pictures he has sent to me are absolutely disgusting. And if a building inspector walked through there as a regular house, they'd red tag it and say, it's not fit for anybody to be living in, but that's government housing.

[00:05:17] Eric Goranson: So I think we need to be working on trying to get that stuff dialed in for people out there. And we need to be holding our own governments accountable for this stuff. If people are living in those things and it is unhealthy, that's bad for everyone. So I think it's something that we really need to pay attention to.

[00:05:33] Eric Goranson: And it's something that I'm going to start doing some dives into. And I'm going to talk to Brandon. Maybe we'll even get him on the show here, but he's a reporter for WBBM in Chicago. I've been following him on this. Him and I used to work together, but I tell you what, if you want to take a deep dive, take a look at some of his stories over there where people are living in buildings that have no business.

[00:05:54] Eric Goranson: People living in mold open sewer running on the floor. Nobody [00:06:00] will fix it. And then when they report it to get fixed, they get pushed back or even get in trouble for trying to report it. Where you got people basically. Blackmailing them, don't turn this in, or I'm going to do this kind of stuff. And it's, it's out of control.

[00:06:16] Eric Goranson: So I really want to see if we can one, do more for people to get into housing, to make it more affordable without putting in additional barriers and to the people that are on government housing. I think we need to be helping them at least have a sustainable house that they're living in something that's halfway healthy because this is absolutely out of control.

[00:06:38] Eric Goranson: If you can hear that noise in the background, that's my glass guy picking up out there. That's what happens when we do this show. Sometimes we get a little bit of background noise, but here's the thing, guys. This is one of those things here that I'm really. Really thinking that we should be taking a look at it's an election year, which means we're voting people into office.

[00:06:55] Eric Goranson: We should be paying attention to this subject because I think there's a lot to this, that we could [00:07:00] really make some difference and we could really change people's lives. If we can get people healthier, just living in their homes, maybe we can get them out to be even more productive people in society. So we're not having to pay for their housing.

[00:07:14] Eric Goranson: So I think if we spend some time, get people in the right place, and if we actually do something about it. There's a lot more we can do guys. We got a, here's a little inside peek. We're have a giveaway starting on June 1st, and this is going to be absolutely amazing. I'm going to give you just some quiet details cause we haven't announced it yet, but we're going to announce it on.

[00:07:35] Eric Goranson: Since you've listened this far into the podcast, we're giving, this is our biggest giveaway of around the house shows history. This is amazing. We are working with electric generators, direct power equipment, direct same company, two different names, depending on which website you go to and my friends over at gen tent, and we're giving away a 15, 000 KW generator [00:08:00] and a bunch of other prizes, and you'll be able to take this little safety quiz.

[00:08:05] Eric Goranson: We're trying to promote generator safety starting on the first, starting on Saturday. We're going to have a little bit of a show on it. And you're going to be able to sign up for a chance to win and all the details will be out there. So we haven't announced all the little details on it. So the, all those rules and regulations that will be coming up on Saturday and don't worry, you don't have to just set up on Saturday.

[00:08:27] Eric Goranson: It'll go Saturday through July 3rd. And then a winner will be selected by them. So they've got a whole program. I've been working with them on it, and this is going to be exciting. It's our biggest giveaway we've ever done in around the house history. And it's a whole package. There'll be second and third place prizes.

[00:08:44] Eric Goranson: There's a lot of cool stuff there. So stay tuned for that on Saturday show. See, there's that little tease that I usually give you on Friday. This one. I'm giving it to you since you listened to the last half of this episode. So there we go. All right, everybody, I got to get over here and get some stuff done.

[00:08:58] Eric Goranson: I'm going to go actually going [00:09:00] on somebody else's podcast today. So I've got to get ready for that. And I appreciate you guys all tuning in and pay attention to social media. We got a lot going on over there coming up soon as well. So, all right, everybody have a great rest of the week here. I appreciate y'all tuning in and stay tuned on Saturday.

[00:09:16] Eric Goranson: And we have another excellent episode besides that one as well. So we've got a lot going on this weekend. Happy summertime, happy post Memorial day weekend. Thanks for tuning in around the house. We'll see you Saturday.