Rebuilding Together to Repair More Than 700 Homes During National Rebuilding Month

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 4, 2016 – Rebuilding Together, a leading national nonprofit in safe and healthy housing that provides low-income homeowners with critical home repairs, will mark its annual National Rebuilding Month this April. Nearly 20,000 volunteers will serve in more than 700 affiliate-led rebuild projects during National Rebuilding Month.

During National Rebuilding Month, Rebuilding Together will launch a pledge drive, encouraging people across the country to support safe and healthy homes. The drive will provide safety tips that can be implemented at home and a call-to-action to provide assistance to low income homeowners.

National Rebuilding Month shines a spotlight on the increasing need to provide low-income homeowners with safe and healthy housing. National Rebuilding Month will culminate on National Rebuilding Day, Saturday April, 30 and will engage volunteers in a concerted effort to complete repairs on homes, nonprofit facilities and community spaces to bring immediate, large-scale impact to communities across America on the same day. The event has been recognized by community leaders and national corporate partners.

“Throughout the country, over 2.6 million homeowners live in inadequate housing, often families with young children and limited resources or older adults who are no longer able to make repairs in their homes,” said Caroline Blakely, President and CEO of Rebuilding Together. “National Rebuilding Month shines a spotlight on the ever-growing need for our services and serves as a call-to-action to develop programs that ensure every person lives in a safe and healthy home.”

During National Rebuilding Month, Rebuilding Together affiliates and volunteers will serve veterans, older adults, families with children, and people with disabilities by providing them with a variety of critical home repairs, including flooring repairs and replacement, weatherization repairs, roof and handrail replacements, accessibility modifications, painting, landscaping, and other major home rehabilitations. The repairs are provided free of charge to the homeowners who, often faced with diminishing resources, must choose food and medicine over critical home repairs — choices that, over time, can lead to crumbling foundations, dangerously sagging roofs, and windows and doors that can’t be secured for their own safety.

National Rebuilding Month originated in 1973 in Midland, TX with volunteers helping neighbors rebuild their homes. The group founded Rebuilding Together, at the time “Christmas in April,” and gathered around a month of service each year in April. The mission then grew beyond the idea of providing service one month per year to bringing volunteers together to provide low-income homeowners with critical repairs year-round.

For more information on National Rebuilding Month, visit rebuildingtogether.org/nrm and follow #RebuildingMonth on Twitter.