SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento is helping homeowners. It's part of the Rock the Block Oak Park program in May.
"Rock the Block is an initiative that was started in Sacramento seven years ago, specifically, in the Oak Park neighborhood by Habitat for Humanity as an opportunity to make an investment over time in a community and see the impact by doing home repairs for low income and fixed income homeowners," said Leah Miller, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento.
Habitat has repaired more than 100 homes since the start of the program. Last year, Rock the Block Oak Park hosted about 600 volunteers to help complete home repairs, community projects and a community cleanup.
"While it's important to create new affordable housing units in our community, it's just as important to preserve the existing affordable housing in our community," Miller said.
According to Habitat for Humanity, the group leveraged almost 4,800 volunteer hours and more than $385,000 in funding into 14 home repair projects and 11 community investment projects.
"This will be our seventh year holding Rock the Block in the Oak Park neighborhood," Miller said. "It brings together hundreds of volunteers over 36 hours to engage and help to repair between 20 to 25 homes as well as community projects."
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Pamela Dunbar is a homeowner in Oak Park. She participated in the program last year. She says the program helped her and her mother beyond belief. Habitat provided extensive repairs and renovations to the home from the inside out.
Dunbar says the home has been in her family for 60 years and the repairs will help keep the home in her family for many more years to come.
"They've given me a dream home for my mother," Dunbar said. "They painted, put in an HVAC, heating and air conditioning, in the house. They winterized the home and this is probably the first warm winter she's had. I have nieces and I have a nephew, son and daughter. I hope that they will maintain the home so that it's a foundation and anchor."
The 7th Annual Rock the Block Oak Park program will be held May 3-4. Applications are being accepted now until Feb. 1.
If you're a homeowner in Oak Park, you can apply to the program by visiting the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento website. Habitat is also encouraging others to get involved by becoming a volunteer.
"Our home repair efforts are to make sure that people can stay in their already affordable homes, maintain the investments that their families have made and continue to pass down that generational wealth for generations to come," Miller said.
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