Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Your neighborhood. Your News.

Milwaukee NNSnewsMilwaukee NNSSearch
Subscribe to NNS today!
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
    • Arts and Recreation
    • Community
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Health and Wellness
    • Housing
    • Public Safety
    • NNS Spotlight
    • Special Report
  • Posts From Community
    • Submit a Story
  • Community Voices
  • How To
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Local Video
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect
    • NNS WGLB 1560 Radio
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • About
    • Staff
    • Partners
    • News 414
    • The neighborhoods we cover
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University


Language: English English Spanish Spanish

You are here: Home / Home / Carousel / “A Brush With Kindness” blitz saves homeowners thousands in repairs

“A Brush With Kindness” blitz saves homeowners thousands in repairs

August 2, 2012 by Edgar Mendez 1 Comment

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

James Atkins, volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, measures the siding on a house. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)

Aaron Helt, project coordinator for Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity, and Veronica Ortiz, housing coordinator for the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative, review repairs to a house on S. 22nd Street. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)

Continuing a tradition of rehabbing houses in Clarke Square, a Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity crew of more than 75, including tradesmen, homeowners and volunteers from as far away as Missouri and Indiana, repaired five homes during “A Brush With Kindness” (ABWK) blitz week.

The ABWK program helps bring homes up to code by providing improvements and repairs at no cost to eligible homeowners, according to Aaron Helt, project coordinator. The program is funded by the Zilber Family Foundation and the Margaret S. Chester Revocable Trust with paint donated by the Valspar Corporation.

The houses, all located on S. 22nd Street, needed varying degrees of repairs ranging from painting to new porches, roofs and gutters.

If contracted out, the repairs for each house would cost homeowners between $15,000-20,000, according to Helt.

Those repair costs are prohibitive to many homeowners in the Clarke Square area, including Javier and Araceli Tejada, whose home was one of five repaired.

In their application to have their home included in the blitz, the Tejadas wrote, “We have five kids and are unable to pay for necessary repairs on the house including new doors, windows and siding.”

The Tejadas added that the timeworn windows had led to huge energy bills in winters past.

“There is always so much work that needs to be done to each home,” Helt said.

Helt considers the blitz week a way to not only help homeowners, but also for Habitat to reach out to communities that don’t typically see new construction projects in their neighborhoods, although they have many century-old homes.

Veronica Ortiz, housing coordinator for the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative (CSNI), says that the ABWK program also helps the CSNI meet its Quality of Life Plan goal of neighborhood beautification.

“Residents want their neighborhood to look good so we’re getting rid of the negative and making things new and better.”

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

Filed Under: Carousel, Clarke Square, Home, Housing, Neighborhoods, News, South

About Edgar Mendez

Facebook |  Twitter | More stories from Edgar

Edgar is a senior staff reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Mendez is a proud graduate of UW-Milwaukee, where he double majored in Journalism and Sociology, and of Marquette University, where he earned a master’s degree in Communication. As an accomplished journalist, Edgar’s awards include a 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow award, several press club awards and a Society of Professional Journalists’ regional award for columns dealing with issues such as poverty, homelessness and racism.

Comments

  1. Janet Woolfolk/Lucy Jones says

    March 27, 2015 at 2:28 pm

    I am writing for myself whom is disabled and a friend of mind wiho is elderly, we both own our homes and need work to be completed, she needs a new front and back porch and I need new windows.
    Please shed some light on how we may be able to get these projects completed.

    Thank you,

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Recent News

Community First hires two developers, makes plans to serve more residents

OPINION: An open letter to the police chief: Surveillance and profiling are the not the building blocks for police reform

Post from Community: Looking for a job? Here are some opportunities.

Advertisement
Give today to support our mission. Donate to Milwaukee NNS.
Advertisement

News

  • Arts and Recreation
  • Economic Development
  • Education
  • Health and Wellness
  • Housing
  • Public Safety
  • NNS Spotlight
  • Special Reports

Engage with us

  • Posts from Community
  • Community Voices
  • Submit a Story

About NNS

  • Milwaukee NNS Staff
  • Partners
  • News414
  • The neighborhoods we cover
  • Careers
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS feed

Communities

Contact

mailing address
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Diederich College of Communication
Marquette University
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Johnston Hall 430
Milwaukee, WI 53233

email
info@milwaukeenns.org

phone & fax
PHONE: 414.604.6397 FAX: 414.288.6494


Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service is a project of Diederich College of Communication and Marquette University.
© 2020 Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Terms of use.
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee WI 53233 • info@milwaukeenns.org

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in