January 17, 2002

Helping the poor rebuild

Photo by Jon Silver John Thuma is executive director of Rebuilding Together Seattle. Lynda Boyle is president of the board of directors. They coordinate over 2,000 volunteers each year to rehabilitate houses of low-income homeowners.

There's one thing you know for sure when you enter Rebuilding Together Seattle's spartan Westlake Avenue headquarters: They don't waste a lot of money on overhead.

The nonprofit organization -- formerly called Christmas in April -- wrangles volunteers on the last Saturday in April to fix, paint and clean homes and community centers for those unable to afford or perform the work themselves.

John Thuma, the executive director and only full-time staff member, mans the sole office in Rebuilding Together's second-floor industrial space. He said the building is owned by Paul Allen's development company, which rents out the space for next to nothing.

Utility shelves stocked with paint cans, wood planks, tools and other doodads fill up most of the space outside Thuma's office, which he shares with a part-time assistant. The materials are donated mostly by contractors, though some items are more useful than others. Lynda Boyle, who became president of the organization's board of directors this year, joked that they have all the blue and yellow paint they can use.

The two take the vagaries of charitable work in stride, pointing instead to the success the organization has had since its inception in 1990. Since then, Rebuilding Together Seattle has repaired 408 homes and community centers throughout the city.

Other affiliates have popped up around the state, including Grays Harbor, Bellingham, Tacoma and the Eastside. All told, Rebuilding Together U.S.A., which was founded in 1988 and is based in Washington, D.C., comprises over 625 affiliates throughout the country.

The organization switched its name from Christmas in April last year. Rebuilding Together, said Boyle, "better describes what the organization does -- we actually help rebuild. It doesn't exclude any particular branch or religion or affiliate."

Having April in the organization's name was limiting too, Thuma said. "We have a long-term big goal out there of broadening our program to be more than just in April. And we have done things at other times of the year and envision that growing over time.

"There are projects that don't wait well," Thuma said. "We've always had homes that we go into that don't have heat or have holes in the roof."

With the economy in the dumps, though, this year's goal is simply to stay the course. "We've seen a slowdown (in donations), said Thuma, "but not a precipitous falloff." Rebuilding Together, he said, will rely on its long-term sponsors to help keep the program afloat.

About $2,500 covers the cost of a single project, counting money left over to cover rent and staff. But Thuma estimated that every dollar donated actually represents another $4.50 worth of labor, services and materials that are "off the books." Last year, Rebuilding Together Seattle took in and spent $180,000 while completing 51 projects.

Corporate sponsors pair off with individual projects. Rebuilding Together sifts through about 130 applications to come up with 50 projects, taking into account not only the scale of the work (not too big, not too small), but household income and criminal records.

While sponsoring companies generally provide the unskilled labor, Rebuilding Together must coordinate with the plumbers, roofers, electricians and carpenters to do the tricky stuff. Skilled trades people could be scheduled to hit several projects throughout a 10-hour shift.

Typical applicants to the program are elderly, longtime homeowners on a fixed income and supporting grandchildren. "Some of the people have lived big pasts" but have fallen onto hard times, said Thuma.

A quirk of Rebuilding Together's 18-member board of directors is its preponderance of women, despite being stacked with construction companies.

Boyle, who freelances as a project manager and owner's representative through her company, Building Professionals Inc., was at a loss to explain the discrepancy. "I've never even thought about that," she said.

But Boyle believes the work Rebuilding Together does has as much to do with the people it serves as it does with the homes it rebuilds. "It doesn't require you to use a hammer to walk through someone's home and realize they need heat," she said. "It takes a heart. It takes a lot of empathy and people skills."

Though Boyle must juggle her time between work and her role at Rebuilding Together, which requires an extra 10 hours a week, "my heart really wants to give back to the community," she said.

Previous columns:

• Sturdy composite lampposts break the mold, 01-10-2002
• Consultant keeps projects moving smoothly, 01-03-2002
• Survey says it was a good year, 12-20-2001
• University Mechanical plugs into young exec, 12-13-2001
• Building a wall -- three bricks at a time, 12-06-2001
• Crane company picks its niche, 11-29-2001
• Retailers buy into energy management, 11-15-2001
• Beyond buckling up, 11-08-2001