Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.
For more information about Rebuilding Together with Christmas in April, or to apply for home repairs, call (702) 259-4900 or visit the organization online at rtcasn.com
A local nonprofit organization dedicated to helping needy citizens retrofit their homes or do emergency repairs has a waiting list, but not of houses to fix. It has more volunteers than it has clients to serve, its officials say.
And if Rebuilding Together with Christmas in April doesn't start getting more applications, there is a chance the group may have to return more than $100,000 in federal grant money, Therese Elliott, program director, said.
The thought of that makes Elliott's voice quake with emotion as she speaks of all of the people who need help but either don't know how to ask or don't know that her organization is ready to offer a hand.
"I know it's because people don't know that we're here," Elliott said.
"What a tragedy to have to turn money back in when there are people out there with their roofs caved in, and here I am able to help them."
Last year Rebuilding Together with Christmas in April provided 300 families, low-income senior citizens and people with disabilities with free home repairs, Elliott said, and used up its grant money in three out of four of its programs.
But thousands went unspent in a program that receives significant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to rehabilitate run-down homes for low-income individuals.
Only seven people applied and qualified for this program last year, Elliott said, but the group is funded to help up to two to three times that.
The organization, which started in the valley in 1993, helped its 1,000th client just last month, Elliott said. Walter Porch, a 72-year-old double amputee, needed emergency air conditioning.
But every new client reminds Elliott of how many more need help, she said.
She worries there are others like the 85-year-old woman she met who was filling her bathtub with ice to stay cool when her air conditioning broke down, or the elderly man who was using an outside trash can for a bathroom when his plumbing backed up. She said she worries about all of the widows out there who endure their houses falling down around them rather than move out of the homes where they raised their families.
"They get used to living like this, and it's sad, it's so sad," Elliott said.
Elliott works with local community organizations, churches and Clark County officials to get the word out, and does mass mailings to those she's asked by the county to help. But the organization doesn't have any other money to advertise its services, Elliott said. Most people hear about it through word of mouth, she said.
Elliott said that even some who know the organization exists are "too proud to ask for help" or think the free home repairs are "too good to be true."
In those cases, she said, she just tries to convince them that they've done good in their lives and now it's their turn to be helped, or she encourages them to "pay it forward." Many later volunteer for the organization.
Porch said he was one of the people who had trouble asking for help when his air conditioning broke in July.
He said the Christmas in April people made it easier for him because they were "so kind and courteous and eager to help."
"It's absolutely tremendous service I got from those people," said Porch, who will speak at the group's fund-raising dinner Oct. 25. "It's really amazing."
Porch, a veteran, said he learned of the group's work a couple of years ago, when the air conditioner of a disabled woman he knew went out. A former auto mechanic and business owner, Porch said he became disabled last year when his legs had to be amputated after several operations to his upper body cut off circulation to his legs.
Because he makes $19 a month too much in Social Security, only the Christmas in April organization and Southern Nevada Amputees Support Group have been able to help him, Porch said.
Helping people like Porch remain independent and live with dignity is one of Christmas in April's main goals, Elliott said.
Most of their work is in emergency repairs such as broken air conditioners or heaters, clogged-up plumbing or burst water heaters, but they also do full renovations where licensed contractors refinish roofs or gut and redo homes.
The organization also will install ramps and other home modifications to help those with disabilities or impairments, Elliott said. She estimates that about 90 percent of the organization's clients are senior citizens.
The organization's major event is its Christmas in April day, when several major corporations sponsor projects and bring volunteers to help renovate homes in a one-day work-a-thon on the last Saturday in April, Elliott said. Last year 3,000 volunteers renovated 32 homes.
With the help of the volunteers and the donations of corporate sponsors such as Home Depot, KB Homes and Port-of-Subs -- which fed every volunteer -- the organization spend about $5,000 per home on average but did about $20,000 in repairs, Elliott said.
The group also works with nonprofit groups such as HELP of Southern Nevada, the Economic Opportunity Board and Clark County Social Services to leverage resources, Elliott said.
"We're a small organization, but we do big things," Elliott said.
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