They Pitch In to Help Fix Up

No doubt Estella Jackson’s Victorian house just south of downtown Los Angeles was once a handsome home. But 100 years can take its toll.

With its exterior white paint peeling, poor insulation and a metal security door falling off its hinges, the house was not only tattered but probably unsafe for an elderly woman, as well.

So it was a welcome help for the 78-year-old great-grandmother two weekends ago when a swarm of strangers descended on her house to paint and weatherstrip, repair lights and bolt that security door back in place.

The 200 volunteers returned Saturday, too, to finish the long list of repair projects at Jackson’s house, as well as at two other houses and the nearby All Peoples Christian Center.

The two-weekend project was coordinated by Rebuilding Together South Central Los Angeles, a chapter of a national volunteer group that repairs the homes of needy elderly, the disabled and low-income families.

“Everybody was nice,” said Jackson, whose three-bedroom house has been in her family since they came from Mississippi in 1945. “It’s going to be much more comfortable.”

Rebuilding Together South Central L.A. was started after the 1992 riots. A few local volunteers, including a banker, associated their group with the national Rebuilding Together organization, which until last year was known as Christmas in April.

There are various chapters of Rebuilding Together in Southern California, including in Pasadena, East Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego.

According to the national organization, it has 770 affiliates in all 50 states. It claims 1.4 million volunteers who have worked more than 14.5 million hours and rehabilitated 47,000 houses and nonprofit facilities.

The organization aims to make life better for some of the 22 million low-income homeowners in the country--a number that it says is expected to grow to 28.5 million by 2010.

The South-Central chapter’s latest project entailed just three houses and the community center, but its work has a much bigger legacy, said Sean Dwyre, the organization’s volunteer director.

The group works on nine to 15 homes per year, spending the approximately $40,000 that it raises between projects.

To date, Dwyre said, it has spent more than $1 million and organized volunteers to rehabilitate 140 homes and 35 community centers and schools in South Los Angeles, such as Foshay Learning Center and Washington High School.

“Our mission is to make every homeowner’s [house] warm, safe and livable,” Dwyre said.

For the most recent project, Dwyre, a 34-year-old human resources manager for a warehousing company, and four other professionals who make up the chapter’s board organized volunteers from Staples Center and the Gas Co.

The group chose the All Peoples Christian Center, a lively two-story building in the Latino and African American community that runs everything from after-school tutoring programs to a continuation high school.

The center then recommended 10 nearby homes for repairs.

On the first Saturday, the volunteers gathered at the center and set to work, replacing two old stoves in the kitchen and clearing an overgrown yard. In a small library, they installed book shelves.

“The stoves were definitely falling apart,” said Saundra Bryant, the center’s director. “We really didn’t have the resources to do those repairs.”

A team of volunteers then walked across the street to work on Jackson’s house. The other two houses chosen were those of the Sanchez and Carrillo families, adjacent homes a block away from Jackson’s house.

“We’re very thankful,” said Estaneslao Carrillo. The volunteers, among other things, replaced a boiler and fixed a leaky roof and broken windows. “I feel very happy to receive that attention.”

In addition to the three houses and the community center selected for repairs, the Gas Co. “adopted” the seven other homes that the All Peoples center had recommended, sending crews to weatherize them and make them more energy-efficient.

“There’s an invaluable experience in helping out underprivileged residents,” said Peter Hidalgo, a Gas Co. spokesman.

To find candidates, Dwyre and the four other Rebuilding Together board members leave fliers at nonprofit organizations, police stations and community gathering spots. (Rebuilding Together South Central L.A. can be reached at [323] 357-0072.)

For the next project sometime in the fall, Dwyre already has 40 applications in his briefcase that must be narrowed down to about a dozen. The group focuses on homeownership and degree of need.

Among the people they have helped, Dwyre said, was a family living in a house with dirt floors.

Another recipient of help was a 97-year-old woman who bought only canned goods because rats roamed her house.

There was another elderly woman whose home’s plumbing was so bad the toilet emptied under the house. “It’s really easy to say it here, but when you walked in there, it was a different experience--the smell,” he said.

Dwyre said nothing beats the satisfaction of helping someone.

“You get hugs from these people. They cry,” said Dwyre, whose social consciousness seems to run in the family.

His mother comes to the city from Agua Dulce to volunteer in his projects, and his sister runs New Leash on Life, a group in the San Fernando Valley that rescues dogs from shelters.

“The impact that you have on somebody’s life is immediate,” Dwyre said. “There are no strings attached.”