But computers are a different matter.
The organization that builds affordable homes for the poor has launched a $1 million pilot program with three technology companies to put free computers and Internet access into all its homes in the Winston-Salem area. It may eventually expand the effort nationwide.
"Habitat builds houses, but what we're really trying to do is change lives," said Kay Lord, executive director of the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Winston-Salem and surrounding Forsyth County. "A computer is a basic need, just like a refrigerator, particularly if you're a young person going to school."
HATCH, an early-childhood technology company based in Winston-Salem, suggested two years ago that Habitat for Humanity provide computers for the new homes being built in Forsyth County. It has since provided 38 computers for the homes and promised to supply more through the end of the program.
Habitat for Humanity announced Wednesday that in addition to those homes, the 100 homes it built before 2000 also will receive computers and printers through another company, which it did not name. AOL Time Warner will provide free Internet access.
AOL Time Warner also will pay for a two-year study by Wake Forest University to examine the computers' effect on poor families. If the results are as positive as Habitat for Humanity and the companies expect, the program will probably be expanded nationwide.
"At the end of the day, this probably will be the most comprehensive look at how to infuse the computer into low-income households," said B. Keith Fulton, vice president of the AOL Time Warner Foundation. "We are confident we will see tremendous educational and workforce gains."
The study will examine whether children's grades have improved and whether their love of learning has increased, too.
The anecdotal evidence from children in the 38 homes that already have with computers is clear, said Sonja Murray, Habitat for Humanity's director of development: The children feel better about themselves.
"Now they're no different from anybody else in class," she said. "They not only can turn in typed, not handwritten, papers, but they can include computer-generated graphs and charts."
The state requires students to pass a computer literacy test to graduate from high school.
"The education system expects students to have a computer," Murray said. "The house levels the playing field for the homeowner, but the computer levels the playing field for the children. They're not left out or left behind."
Habitat for Humanity also is providing computer training for the families. If the program is expanded -- the organization builds 5,000 to 6,000 new U.S. homes a year -- it will probably stay true to Habitat for Humanity's mission of being "a hand up, not a handout" by arranging for families to pay something toward the computers.
Families pay for their homes with small payments and by putting several hundred hours of labor into building them.
Mary Brunson, who moved with her two teenage sons into a Habitat for Humanity home in 1998, was the first of the pre-2000 homeowners to get a computer Wednesday.
When she began Habitat for Humanity's required computer classes, she did not even know how to turn on a computer. Now, she said, she can use the mouse, go to the pull-down menu and "click-click two times."
"Mom, that's double-click," Brunson's oldest son, Chris, 15, said with a hint of embarrassment
Brunson, 47, who has a factory job with Sara Lee Hosiery, hopes to use the computer to find a better job. Her sons look forward to not having to go to the library or their neighbor's house to do homework. They also want to create their own Web site, and Chris wants to talk to friends in chat rooms.
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