Westminster Presbyterian Church Joins Us For Our First In-Person Volunteer Event!
A huge thank you to volunteers from Westminster Presbyterian Church – Alexandria for being a part of our Adopt-a-Home program, our first in-person event since the start of the pandemic!
Volunteers did an excellent job assisting one of our Alexandria homeowners by clearing overgrowth in the backyard and redoing their brick walkway, providing a safer outdoor area and eliminating tripping hazards. With Adopt a Home, you can sponsor the repairs for an entire home, ranging from $2,500 to $15,000. Sponsorship comes with unique marketing opportunities, and some sponsorships can accommodate small outdoor volunteer groups.
The world is reopening, but many of our senior neighbors are still isolated.. Let’s give well wishes to our community’s seniors and send some cards.
Cards can be as simple as “Happy Summer, we hope you are staying safe” to something more personal. These can even be pen pal style letters; the idea is to bring some much needed community to our neighbors. Mail to:
Rebuilding Together DCA 700 Princess Street, Suite 206 Alexandria, VA 22314
Deadline to mail cards is June 21
Memorial Day Mentions: Give Thanks to Local Veterans!
Join us in making home-made cards for veterans this Memorial Day! All you have to do is send your cards to us at:
Rebuilding Together DCA 700 Princess Street, Suite 206 Alexandria, VA 22314
Cards can be as simple as “Happy Memorial Day!”, “Thank you for your service!” or you can get more personal if you’d like. Feel free to get creative.
We will send your letters and accompanying Safeway gift cards to veterans in our community. Deadline to mail cards to us is May 24th, 2021.
Spring2ACTion!
You raised $13,925 for Spring2ACTion! Thank you!
Your generosity and commitment to serving your neighbors, are what hold our community together. As we speak, a neighbor in Old Town is receiving the critical repairs he needs to ensure he can stay safely at home in the community he loves. Because of you, we can give more low-income homeowners the free critical home repairs needed to help them stay at home.
Spring2ACTion may be over, but our work isn’t. If you didn’t get a chance to donate yesterday, you can still make a difference. Make a gift today so that more homeowners can stay safely.
A VIRTUAL 5k to support homeowners with limited income get the critical home repairs they need to stay safe and healthy at home.
When: Saturday, April 24 2021 – Saturday, May 1 2021
A safe healthy home is more important now than ever. We’ve all spent the past year in isolation, doing our best to stay home and follow public health guidelines. But the truth is, home simply isn’t safe for many of our neighbors. Whether it’s a leaking roof, no heat or AC, unable to move up and down stairs… the list goes on.
A safe and healthy home can improve social, emotional, and physical health. And homeownership is still the number one way to build wealth in the country
Introducing Adopt-a-Home!
We’ve hosted National Rebuilding Day (NRD) every year since 1987. Teams of volunteers from companies, organizations, and houses of worship would repair homes owned by individuals and families in need in Washington, DC and Alexandria, Virginia.
When the pandemic hit, we knew NRD had to look a little different.
Because it is still unsafe for us to host volunteer events with hundreds of people, we’re giving you — our donors, partners, volunteers, and supporters — another way to get involved.
To ensure the health and safety of our clients and volunteers and prevent the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), National Rebuilding Day projects on Saturday, September 26 are cancelled. We are so appreciative of our community partners for supporting us through this challenging time.
It was not an easy decision to delay the delivery of our services on National Rebuilding Day to the 40+ individuals and families in need of critical home repairs. However, the health and safety of both our clients and volunteers is our top priority.
YOU Raised $1,800 on Virtual Trivia Night
Virtual Trivia Night was a HUGE success! You raised $1,800 while having fun with family, friends, and coworkers. Thank you District Trivia for helping us pull off a great event.
Housing News
June 25, 2021: A Black-White Housing Gap Persists, But One D.C. Woman Persevered And Won
Black and Hispanic families in the United States are far less likely than white families to own their own homes and has led to other racial disparities like building wealth or access to a good education. It took Tasharn Richardson determination, luck and financial aid assistance through local DC nonprofits to be able to finally own a home for her and her family.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office has proposed changes to the Future Land Use Map to help achieve her goal of 36,000 new housing units by 2025, with a third of them affordable to low- and moderate-income residents. Read the full article below.
April 26, 2021: Rebuilding Together: Earth Day Clean-up at Marvin Gaye Park
Thanks to James Anderson and Shalawn March for organizing an Earth Day park clean up! Staff and board members came together for a park clean at Marvin Gaye Park in NE Washington DC. Check out our feature on DCW50!
March 1, 2021: Rebuilding Together: Pandemic Problems, Community Impact and Our Purpose
We recently had the chance to sit down with The Zebra, Alexandria’s home for good news, and discussed how operations have changed during COVID-19, the impact we look to make, and what got us involved. Read the full article below!
February 26, 2021: Pandemic Intensifies Homeownership, Affordability Inequities
“The racial divide in the region’s housing has long carried entrenched roots, embedded deeply in government policies dating back decades. That means efforts to close that gap will need to be comprehensive and, assuredly, time-consuming — and largely centered on zoning, according to experts. A variety of efforts are afoot by federal, state and local officials, as well as private sector players, to alleviate the housing pain and, for tenants, prevent a flood of evictions when their moratoriums end.”
January 6, 2021: Amazon Gives $2 billion for Affordable Housing
Amazon Inc. is set to give $2 billion for affordable housing in three cities across the US, all of which will be host an Amazon HQ. Of these three cities, one is local to us, Arlington, VA! The first investment, over $567 million, will go towards over 1,300 affordable apartments. The company is targeting households between 30% and 80% of the area’s median income.
September 16, 2020: Communities Can Better Prevent Homelessness through Housing- and Justice-System Partnerships
The pandemic’s devastating health and economic effects and the national reckoning around police brutality and systemic racism have highlighted pervasive inequities in communities across the US. A key issue lies directly at the intersection of those crises: homelessness.
September 14, 2020: New Study Finds Formerly Redlined Neighborhoods Are More at Risk for COVID-19
In collaboration with researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Richmond, the NCRC study found neighborhoods where discriminatory lending practices once limited access to credit for Black, immigrant and poor Americans have higher rates of COVID-19 comorbidities, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and obesity.
July 30, 2020: We Must ACT Now to Prevent Eviction
President and CEO of ACT for Alexandria Heather Peeler shares her list of action items to protect families from eviction due to COVID-19. She highlights, “The Washington Post recently reported that 20% of renters in the United States are at risk of eviction by Sept. 30. That means 7,000 households in Alexandria are in jeopardy.”
In 1936, Mary Pherribo, a widowed black woman born to parents who had been enslaved, bought a home and it changed her family’s finances for generations.
Today, homeownership rates of black people lag even further behind the rates of white people, affecting their ability to build wealth.
July 17, 2020: Dominion Energy Commits $35 Million to Support Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Dominion Energy commits $25 million for HBCUs and a $10 million scholarship fund supporting African American and underrepresented students across their service territory.
Our President and CEO Katharine Dixon sits on Dominion Energy EnergyShare Board of Advisors and Dominion Energy’s Northern Virginia Community Advisory Board.
June 29, 2020: Virginia Launches COVID-19 Rent and Mortgage Relief Program
The Virginia Rent and Mortgage Relief Program (RMRP) is designed to support and ensure housing stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes financial assistance for rent or mortgage payments past due beginning April 1, 2020 and onward.
June 24, 2020: COVID-19 Action that Centers Black LGBTQ People Can Address Housing Inequities
The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting the lives of people who are socially and politically marginalized. The struggles faced by the LGBTQ communities, including high rates of homelessness, significant health disparities, high rates of poverty, and increased likelihood of violent victimization compared with heterosexual and cisgender peers, are amplified by current socioeconomic strains.
June 24, 2020: Affordability Rated Poorly in 2020 Alexandria Resident Survey
The survey found 91% of respondents rated Alexandria positively as a place to live and visit. A total of 86% rated the quality of life positively, and 82% rated their neighborhoods positively. There were 80% who are likely to remain in Alexandria for the next five years, but just46% see it as a place to retire.
June 17, 2020: How Prior Economic Disadvantage Exacerbates Foreclosure Risks for Older Women of Color
The Great Recession disproportionately affected older adults and women of color — groups relying on their homes for both housing stability and wealth. Despite this, research had not examined how mortgage troubles affected financial assets for older women across race and ethnicity. The authors built the work on awareness that initial inequality for a person or group may perpetuate over a life span despite high levels of responsibility and risk aversion.
We are proud to announce that we’ve been selected for the Catalogue for Philanthropy’s 2020-2021 class, highlighting our organization as “one of the best” local nonprofits. In light of the challenges we are facing as a community, hope and resilience are more important than ever. To learn more, visit cfp-dc.org.
May 19, 2020: The 10 Tools You Need for Basic Home Repair
Our homes are getting a lot more use while we shelter in place. Here are the tools you’ll need to handle most projects:
April 22, 2020: What Can State and Local Governments Do to Stabilize Renters during the Pandemic?
As part of the Urban Institute’s exploration of policies to protect people and places from the impacts of COVID-19, researchers will be examining how state and local governments can respond to the tremendous rental housing challenges presented by COVID-19. They will present promising strategies to help states and local areas equitably answer, “What do we do when the rent is due?”
April 15, 2020: Can Strategies for Flu Mitigation among Public Housing and Low-Income Residents Apply to COVID-19?
In times like these, effective emergency preparedness and response strategies are essential for ensuring important safety messages and services reach all populations so everyone understands how to keep themselves and their communities safe and healthy.
A couple of the key findings:
Public housing residents are more likely than the general community to have poor health. Whether through distressed public housing or substandard housing in the private market, low-income households have pre-existing risks of respiratory infections, asthma, lead poisoning, injuries, and mental health problems.
Pre-existing health problems for low-income households may increase susceptibility to a pandemic virus or lead to negative health outcomes from additional time spent at home.
Repairing homes is our tool. Rebuilding lives is our mission. Our volunteers and sponsors give us the opportunity to transform neighborhoods in Washington DC and Alexandria into vibrant places – restoring pride, dignity and hope in our communities.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health is an incredibly important piece of overall health and millions of people face the reality of living with mental illness. The National Alliance on Mental Illness uses May as a month-long event to fight stigma, provide support, educate the public, and advocate for those who live with mental illness. There is a link between housing conditions and mental health. Unsafe, unstable, or unhealthy home conditions can lead to worsened mental and physical health. If you or someone you know could benefit from free home repairs, call us today at 703-836-1021. ... See MoreSee Less
Today, along with our partnership with Fannie Mae, a group of awesome volunteers from Beacon Building Products] came out to William Ramsay Recreation Center in Alexandria. The volunteers got their hands dirty mulching the Nature Center, weeding, and doing some general landscaping. This community revolves around their Recreation & Nature center, as the adjacent elementary school holds classes at both, and we know the kids, teachers and, parents alike will appreciate these improvements. We can’t wait to see the lasting impact of these projects, thanks so much for all of your help Beacon Building Products]! ... See MoreSee Less
Today was a perfect day to partner with Fannie Mae SERVE volunteers to revitalize Alexandria's William Ramsay Recreation Center. We're so appreciative of the Fannie Mae employees who came out today to paint, mulch, build shelves, and more! ... See MoreSee Less
![Today, along with our partnership with Fannie Mae, a group of awesome volunteers from Beacon Building Products] came out to William Ramsay Recreation Center in Alexandria. The volunteers got their hands dirty mulching the Nature Center, weeding, and doing some general landscaping. This community revolves around their Recreation & Nature center, as the adjacent elementary school holds classes at both, and we know the kids, teachers and, parents alike will appreciate these improvements. We can’t wait to see the lasting impact of these projects, thanks so much for all of your help Beacon Building Products]!](https://scontent.fmci2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/283089286_384378170395263_4286548798710181761_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p720x720&_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=12M7yE_rpXMAX9pXRZP&_nc_ht=scontent.fmci2-1.fna&edm=AKIiGfEEAAAA&oh=00_AT-n6_3zvORHyQnrThI6aLnX-AUdkL204xhwY238_eFOyQ&oe=6291BA16)
