Profiles in Sustainable Housing, Fall 2004

Rebuilding Together Orange County

by Maggie Coulter

Part of reducing waste involves taking care of what we already have, especially those things that are very resource-intensive, like housing. Maintaining affordable housing stock in good condition promotes resource conservation of both renewable and non-renewable materials. Rebuilding Together is a national effort that brings together volunteers to repair owner-occupied low-income housing.

One of Rebuilding Together’s 262 very active local affiliates is Rebuilding Together Orange County (RTOC), which started in 1991. Like each local affiliate, RTOC is an independently incorporated nonprofit with its own board of directors.

A stalwart and prime mover in RTOC is Cy Baumann, a now-retired engineer. Baumann was still working in the aerospace industry in the early 1990s when his wife started to get involved with Christmas in April, the prerunner of Rebuilding Together. "She was helping to set up projects," explained Baumann. "I wasn’t paying much attention to the details. One day she added ‘and you’d be good at it.’ Those were the magic words and I started paying attention," laughs Baumann. That was almost 15 years ago. Baumann retired in 1996 and has been a full-time volunteer ever since.

To do its work, RTOC has three major tasks: (1) find qualified homeowners and suitable projects; (2) find and organize volunteers to do the work; and (3) raise the money to get the materials needed and pay their staff. Although Rebuilding Together primarily does houses, they will also work on community centers and nonprofit facilities.

Households and Projects
When RTOC first started, they worked with public agencies and other nonprofits to find qualified households and projects. To be eligible for RTOC help, households have to meet federal standards for low income, which is 80 percent of median, although the incomes of most people they serve are much lower.

Because RTOC is not able to answer all of the requests for help, their emphasis is on serving the most needy. "We focus on elderly and disabled because these groups would not necessarily have able-bodied people who could do the repairs themselves," notes Baumann.

"We also do a site assessment to see what people need. We can’t do major structural work, for example, we can reinforce a sagging floor but not replace a foundation. Typically we do painting; repairing and replacing windows and doors; removing small areas of dry-rotted wood; repairing walkways; installing grab bars, ramps, and smoke detectors; fixing plumbing; trimming overgrown landscaping; fixing wiring; and repairing roofs."

The homes are in a variety of neighborhoods. "Sometimes a place will look great from the outside," says Baumann, "but you go inside, you see what the owners haven’t been able to deal with. We’ll find problems that may have started as little things and got much worse over time because the homeowner wasn’t able to take care of them."

In 1991, the first year RTOC started, they had one volunteer day and worked on four houses. "We got coverage in the paper, expanded our outreach," explained Baumann, "We went to senior centers, did presentations at the office on aging, contacted meal services programs. The second year we had one volunteer day and did 20 houses. It increased every year after that. Currently we have about 20 volunteer days and are doing about 200 houses a year in Orange County."

"We currently have a backlog of about 200 applications. Nationwide, Rebuilding Together does about 8,500 houses annually."

Volunteers
RTOC volunteers come from a variety of places. They get calls from private individuals, churches, businesses, and organizations that have heard or read about them. Some of these groups want a volunteer project that their employees or members can do together. RTOC additionally recruits volunteers by flyering neighborhoods where they will be working and proactively contacting churches and other groups.

"It is surprisingly easy to get volunteers for our rebuilding days," says Baumann. "They get a great return rate for working one day. People know what they are getting into; they know what is expected of them. They spend the day with us and feel like they have really accomplished something at the end of the day. They don’t have to go to a lot of meetings or be involved on an ongoing basis if they don’t want to."

RTOC has opportunities for people of all skill levels, from experts in the building trades to enthusiastic window cleaners and yard cleaner-uppers. Able-bodied people in the household are expected to help. Their insurance won’t allow them to accept volunteers under 14, although they have found ways to involve younger people.

"We had a Brownie troop that wanted to help. I suggested they make treats for the volunteers. They did that and included little forms with the treats asking people why they got involved and what they got out of the experience. Some people filled out the forms that day, some tossed them and others took them home, thought about them and sent in their answers later. It was pretty remarkable."

RTOC sometimes does pay for skilled labor. "We have been able to make very effective use of paid workers," explains Baumann. "We figure out what has to be done, make all the arrangements, so that we can use contractors’ time more cheaply. Some projects have been arranged so that the contractors could just come in, get a prescreened set of work orders and go and do them."

"On the Rebuilding Days, we ask people what they want to do. It is remarkable what gets done," smiles Baumann. "I remember a front door that needed to be replaced. We had a volunteer who said he could do it. This entails some precision in hanging the door, not an easy thing. After the volunteers got started, I checked in with the man who was doing the door. It looked great, so I figured he must do this all the time, so I asked him how many of these he had done. He answered, ‘after this, I will have done exactly one."

"Another time we were reading off the work tasks, asking the assembled volunteers what they wanted to do. There was some painting and a family raised their hands. Then there was a picket fence needing repair and three women put their hands up. Then there were some three-foot high weeds and somebody else took that. The last thing was to remove a hazardous walkway, a combination of concrete and brick that was too bumpy for the homeowner to walk over with her walker. This man put up his hand up and said, ‘That’s for me. I’m a heck of a lot better at breaking stuff than building stuff’."

RTOC also has ongoing work for volunteers such as installing grab bars, widened doorway access, ramps, energy assistance devices like hand-held showers, roll-ins, levered doors, and improved lighting. Provided by a U.S. Department of Aging grant, these devises come in a ready-to-go kit.

Getting the Resources
About a third of RTOC’s expenses are covered by cash contributions, including from national and local community sponsors. They get some government funding, including Community Development Block Grants. RTOC holds an annual golf tournament that helps to fund the program. A third comes in the value of donated skilled labor from labor unions. The IBEW (Electrical Workers) will do assessments on projects and does electrical work as well. There are also many individual contractors who donate their skills to projects, or work at a significantly discounted rate. A third comes in the form of unskilled volunteer effort and donated material and supplies. About half of RTOC’s materials are donated by businesses. There are some individual donations as well. The rest is purchased. RTOC also works closely with the local Habitat for Humanity Restore to maximize use of surplus items.

"Storing donated materials is a problem due to lack of space," says Baumann as he walks through the small storage area at the Santa Ana facility. "We hate to say no to donors, even if it is something we can’t use right away. We might be able to use it later and the next time they call it might be something we really need. We can always use lumber and plywood in small quantities."

Through CalMAX, RTOC gives away or sells items they can’t use, like cabinets, nonstandard fixtures, or broken items that their handy person can’t fix.

"We would like to get a large warehouse in which we could store items for the whole region instead of having them stockpiled in several locations," says Baumann. "We really need a central storage facility so that when we do get offers of large amounts of materials, we could accept them. We’d also like to have a place to store wheel chairs, walkers, and lifts. These are items that households end up storing when they are no longer needed, yet there are others who could have used them."

"We wouldn’t be able to pay much for a storage site, but we certainly would put it to good use for the needs of the community," says Baumann. "Know any donors?"

Future
Rebuilding Together is about building community. Baumann explains, "To make it work, we need to mobilize the community. What can be done is based on how much the community participates. We can also be an inspiration to neighborhoods. Once we were working on a street and I noticed that others on the street started fixing up their own houses. We really hope that the neighbors will help us and let others know about this service."

When asked about his vision for the future, Baumann talks about a retreat he was on a few years ago. The participants were asked to think ahead ten years and write a letter to one of their sponsors. "In my letter, I thanked the sponsor and told them we no longer needed them because the community themselves were addressing the needs."

Since 2001, Baumann has been working on trying to expand Rebuilding Together into unserved areas. He is a regional coordinator with the recently incorporated Southern California Council that was formed to get new groups started.

"What we are is a combination of Ernestine, the Lily Tomlin operator character, who is trying to connect all the parts, and the Wizard of Oz, making things happen behind the curtain. We need to get the work done today that needs to be done, but also make sure it continues into the future and that depends on the community."

"I want to be able to answer all the need, to do the work for every home that called," says Baumann. "When we are finished, people are really appreciative. I hear comments all them time like, ‘you have given me a reason to live’ or ‘this is the first time I could go into my backyard since my husband died.’ It is really gratifying."

Contact information:
Cy Baumann
Rebuilding Together Orange County
625 South Cypress Avenue
Santa Ana, CA 92701
(714) 667-8174
info@rebuildingtogether.org
www.socal.rebuildingtogether.org/Orange_County

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Last updated: August 01, 2008