Kansas City Entrepreneur Brings Affordable Housing Options to Life with Compressed Earth Blocks

In 2020, Godfrey Riddle founded Civic Saint, a Kansas City business focused on creating affordable and artful housing options for the community. As the president of the company, he is determined to increase homeownership opportunities, especially for the Black community. The solution that he has chosen is compressed earth blocks (CEBs), which are made of a mix of sand, clay, soil, lime, or cement water. These CEBs offer benefits such as strength, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability.

Riddle’s experiences growing up in Kansas City where his parents struggled with homeownership motivated him to establish this company. He believes that by providing more people with access to homeownership, everyone can benefit. The homes built by Civic Saint are estimated to cost around $100,000 to build 850 square feet and plans to sell them for $130,000-$140,000.

The first project for Civic Saint will be a tiny home in Montgall Park with future plans to expand and build in other neighborhoods in need of affordable housing options. Riddle emphasizes the importance of offering a variety of housing options such as single-family homes, townhouses and small apartment complexes to give people more opportunities to own property and build wealth. He also aims to incorporate art into the design of the homes to reflect the unique character of each neighborhood.

Civic Saint has partnered with the GEM Cultural and Education Center for KC Design Week to showcase an example facade of homes built with CEBs. A public forum will be held on April 25th at kcdesignweek.org where tickets can be purchased .