Local REALTORS® help rebuild Gulf Coast

Teams of REALTORS® around the country, including our own team from Spokane, are taking weeklong trips to the Gulf Coast Region this year, through Habitat for Humanity International’s Global Village trips program. In the Gulf Region, REALTOR® volunteers work on homes sponsored by REALTORS® as well as other homes being built through Habitat for Humanity International.

Earlier this month, 12 members of the Spokane Association of REALTORS® traveled to Slidell, La., and spent seven days rebuilding new homes for still-displaced Hurricane Katrina families. Slidell, a suburban town just north of New Orleans, was in the eye of the storm and was among the areas hardest hit by Katrina. According to Spokane REALTOR® Tom Hormel, in a week’s time the group saw nearly a dozen new homes take shape and prepare to house grateful occupants. Working alongside homeowners and local volunteers, Hormel says “team members built a true global village of homes, families, community, and hope.”

Both Chuck and Tom Hormel, father and son REALTORS®, were returning volunteers for a second trip inside the area of devastation. This time they saw the finished product of their initial trip in September 2007, when they worked on many of the 28 Habitat homes built in Lacombe, La., just a few miles west of Slidell. Chuck recalled that the supervisor of the Lacombe building project is one of the recent homeowners there, after living with his 4-year-old son in a hotel for more than two years and recovering only a handful of personal belongings from the home he lost in the hurricane.

“We had expectations about what we would see, or at least I thought I did, but when faced with what Katrina had done I had a hard time keeping the tears back,” Tom Hormel said. He recounted that there were entire neighborhoods still “just like they were after the hurricane — not a person to be seen, not a dog or cat. Nothing, just building after building damaged or destroyed, business after business closed, due to the storm.”

The National Association of REALTORS® and its state and local REALTOR® associations have committed to generate more than $4 million to build as many as 54 homes along the Gulf Coast. In addition to raising $75,000 per home for the cost of land and building materials, REALTORS® are volunteering their time and skills to assist in the building of these homes.

The NAR-Habitat partnership calls for a portion of the homes to be started as “Homes in a Box.” A Home in a Box is the frame of a house, constructed in a remote location, and then shipped to and completed in the Gulf Region. Starting a home as a “Home in a Box” is a fast and efficient way to begin building a new home. The remaining homes will be built conventionally, from the ground-up in permanent locations.

The National Association of REALTORS® and Habitat for Humanity International thank these Spokane REALTORS® for their participation in the NAR-Habitat Partnership for Gulf Coast Recovery.

For more information, visit www.habitat.org or contact the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate office at (509) 534-2552 or the call the Spokane Association of REALTORS® at (509) 326-9222.