Volunteers Rally to Paint La Habra Woman’s Home

Paint splattered fingers and even speckled some hair as 23 amateur painters spent Saturday morning repainting a La Habra woman’s home.

The project was coordinated by Neighborhood Housing Services of La Habra, a nonprofit group that combines volunteers, public funding and private industry donations to revitalize declining areas in the city, executive director Glenn Hayes said.

The new coat of paint on Melba Schmidt’s home is one of the more visual indications of the group’s work, Hayes said, and Schmidt was pleased.

“It’s a wonderful thing that they’re doing, to give up their Saturday for someone they don’t even know,” Schmidt said. “They’re really doing a nice job and trying to keep things clean.”

Schmidt has lived in the older La Habra neighborhood for 15 years. She was familiar with Neighborhood Housing Services through its newsletters and asked them for help. The service also offers low-interest loans and structural inspections and repairs, Hayes said.

“We have a pretty good idea of what’s going on in the neighborhoods and we are pretty well known,” he said.

Federal grants help make low-interest loans possible, while savings and loans, banks and insurance companies provide the bulk of the group’s operational funds, Hayes said.

In return, the improvements reduce the risk that the homes will be damaged by fire or other hazards, Hayes said.

“They do have a large stake in these neighborhoods,” he said.

Allstate Insurance recently donated $50,000 to an industry committee that supports Neighborhood Housing Services in Los Angeles, La Habra and Santa Ana.

In addition to financial donations, corporate employees sometimes do the actual work, as did the 15 Allstate employees Saturday.