Rebuilding Together

REBUILDING TOGETHER IS an organization bringing together volunteers intending to preserve and revitalize low-income houses and communities. The mission is to ensure that low-income homeowners, from the elderly and the disabled to families with children, are able to live in safety, warmth, and independence. Rebuilding Together seeks to re-create from history the tradition of neighbors helping each other in times of need, particularly the example of barn-raising, when a community would join together to help build a barn for a neighboring family.

A community of people working together is able to achieve more than its constituent members working alone. This was the motivation for a group of Texans who created Rebuilding Together in 1973. Its ideas slowly grew and spread until, in 1988, 13 similarly minded programs working on a similar basis joined together as part of the Christmas in April project and established an office in Washington, D.C. Subsequently, hundreds of other affiliate programs have joined the network to provide services in a thousand towns and cities across the United States. Services provided by Rebuilding Together include emergency repair and maintenance, home modifications, and protection against the elements.

Many of the more than seven million Americans in the lowest income categories spend more than the 30 percent of their income on housing, which is recognized by government as a warning signal of high-cost housing. In these cases, people find it very difficult either to repair old housing or to adapt it to changes in circumstances, necessitated perhaps by a change in the [Page 901]number of people living together, health problems, or aging. Inability to meet these costs can result in exposure to disease and general ill health, not to mention increased likelihood of suffering crime and social problems. Problems are likely to be exacerbated in the future for demographic reasons, such as the increase in the number of elderly people. Climate change is also intensifying threats to housing and health from the weather. Improving houses through weatherization—that is, for resisting the harsh effects of climate—has the additional benefit of helping to lower energy bills over the long term, which is also important for society as a whole. Home improvements can also reduce the risks of bodily harm to the elderly. Annually, one in three Americans over the age of 65 suffers a fall, and this results in more than $20 billion in direct medical costs. This number is set to increase, as is the number of low-income families, and the population as a whole.

Rebuilding Together is supported by a number of corporate sponsors, both financially and in providing time release for employees to join Rebuilding Together volunteer schemes. In addition, many professional construction organizations provide assistance. In 2004, it was reported that 96,300 families had received safe, dry housing as a result of Rebuilding Together's activities, and volunteers had provided more than $93 million in market-value labor. The amount of support provided by Rebuilding Together, although very valuable to those who receive it, is only a very small fraction of what is required throughout the country.

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