Community volunteers are helping get low-income apartments owned by a regional not-for-profit refurbished and ready for families in need to have a long-term, stable home.
Over several days in …
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Community volunteers are helping get low-income apartments owned by a regional not-for-profit refurbished and ready for families in need to have a long-term, stable home.
Over several days in August, volunteer teams from Faith Christian Family Church and CertainTeed helped with painting, flooring repair and other miscellaneous work at five apartments in Warrenton and Wright City that will now be available for low-income families. All the apartments are owned by Northeast Community Action Corporation (NECAC), the regional agency that administers federal housing assistance funding and other services for the poor.
Denny Gladieux, co-director of Faith Christian’s community outreach program, Servant’s Heart, said the volunteers offered their time after learning that NECAC needed help getting some maintenance and refurbishing done so it could make the apartments available to new tenants.
“We just wanted to help get people moved in quickly, because we have a large homeless population. We’re just helping speed up the process” Gladieux explained. “The apartments will be ready to move homeless families into these complexes within the week.”
The apartments getting attention are located on Donna Maria Drive in Warrenton and Brookview Drive in Wright City. Volunteers with CertainTeed, a roofing manufacturer in Jonesburg, said they were happy to use paid service hours from their employer to help with the project.
“CertainTeed is really big about community involvement, if anybody calls and asks us for volunteers to help with anything,” said staff member Crystal Bragg. “These people reached out and asked if we could help, so here we are.”
She added that CertainTeed also has staff help with food, clothing and school supply drives every year.
“I think it’s really great that we get the opportunity to help, and CertainTeed pays us. The company acknowledges how important volunteer activities like this are, and they’re willing to help out,” Bragg said.
Carla Potts, NECAC’s housing development director, said the volunteers are helping with maintenance needs that the agency hasn’t been able to address because of an ongoing labor shortage.
“We’ve been short some maintenance staff. ... It’s a very difficult time to hire staff right now,” Potts said. “The whole point is to get these units up and available. There is such a need for affordable housing. We’ve seen an uptick in homelessness in every county we serve.”
Potts said two families are already lined up to live in the refurbished apartments in Warrenton, once they clear city-mandated inspections.
She added that some additional apartment units could still use work, and NECAC appreciates any community support that is offered.
“NECAC does a lot of things, but we’re only as good as the partners we have, and we’re very blessed,” Potts said. “I can’t say enough about the partners that have stepped up and helped out. They’ve been invaluable.”
