Evelyn Contre (boardmember) and Dan Sargent (Director) of Rebuilding Together of the Triangle
At lunch today, I stopped by the home of Mr. John Snipes in Southeast Raleigh. Rebuilding Together of the Triangle’s executive director, Dan Sargent, invited me to see the renovation work being done on Snipes home.
Mr. Snipes, a Navy veteran of the Vietnam era, had a tree fall on his home by last year’s tornado and his insurance didn’t cover all the costs of fixing it. For 11 months his home has been covered by a tarp. Mr. Snipes’s roof and air conditioning needed replacing, too. His home had no insulation and for the past two years he heated his home with electric space heaters.
Rebuilding Together changed all that. On the recommendation of St. Augustine’s College’s Community Development office in December, Rebuilding Together drew up a plan to not only repair the tornado damage to Mr. Snipes’s home but to make it even better. Now he has a new roof, air conditioner, insulation, windows, hardiplank siding, and a nice, new paint job. A consultant also helped make some accessibility improvements to the interior to make it easier for Mr. Snipes to get around. It’s essentially a brand new home!
A team of volunteers from HPW property management worked for about a month and Sears provided the majority of grant money. Through the donations of materials and labor, Rebuilding Together was able to do $45,000 worth of work for $15,000.
Sargent says there are 100 more needy homeowners on his list for improvements, though typical homes need about $5,000 of repairs. Each recipient must own their own home and meet income requirements.
Rebuilding Together will be presenting to my fellow CAC chairs at the Raleigh CAC’s May meeting. I look forward to spreading the word about the good work this group is doing.