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Remodelers Needed for Hurricane Relief
Rebuilding Together, the nation’s largest volunteer home rehabilitation organization, is seeking volunteers in the skilled trades to help rebuild 1,000 homes in the Gulf Coast region that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.
Rebuilding Together is seeking 25,000 roofers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians and other skilled workers to commit to volunteering for at least one week as part of Rebuild 1000! — an effort to rehabilitate houses of low-income home owners, particularly those belonging to elderly and disabled citizens in the New Orleans metropolitan area and Gulfport.
“By engaging 25,000 volunteers, we will work to rebuild 1000 houses in the Gulf Coast, delivering well over $10 million in market value work,” said Patty Johnson, president and CEO of Rebuilding Together. “We call on every corporation, association, skilled trades group and every church, synagogue and mosque to join in this national mobilization to deliver safe, warm and dry conditions to hurricane-affected houses.”
An estimated 475,000 houses await rehabilitation, more than the number that will have to be torn down. The cost of repairing or rebuilding homes affected by Katrina will be more than $100 billion, according to estimates by the Enterprise Foundation.
Support for Rebuild 1000! has come from several sources ― from garage sales to a major corporate contribution from Countrywide Financial Corporation.
“Financial support is badly needed, and we are proud that we can typically quadruple every dollar given to Rebuilding Together by using donated materials and supplies and volunteer labor. In order to accomplish our goals, we need to raise $4 million, but we will stretch every dollar into many and preserve our existing housing stock,” said Johnson.
To learn more about the Rebuild 1000! volunteer effort, visit the Rebuilding Together Web site. To volunteer your time, click here, or call 877-294-3572.
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