Volunteers To Fix Brownsville Homes For Free

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — Four Brownsville homes will get a face-lift on Saturday thanks to a group of about 200 volunteers. The housing nonprofit Rebuilding Together NYC is returning to the neighborhood for its "Spring Rebuilding Day" after a similar effort in the fall.

"Every New Yorker deserves a safe and healthy place to live," Kimberly George, Rebuilding Together NYC's executive director, said in a statement. "Spring Rebuilding Day takes our work a step further — together with local residents, we're able to continue our revitalization efforts in Brownsville."

Volunteers will make $25,000 worth of repairs throughout the day, organizers say. That includes hanging drywall, adding insulation, cleaning up yards, repainting walls and other work at four Brownsville houses.

The effort will also fix up playgrounds and community gardens at Van Dyke Park as well as the New York City Housing Authority's Brownsville Houses and Tilden Houses.

The fixes are part of Rebuilding Together's National Rebuilding Month, which encompasses 1,500 projects involving 33,000 volunteers across the United States.

They're also a continuation of the "Brownsville Lifting Up Brownsville" initiative, which Rebuilding Together launched last year with the Brownsville Partnership, a campaign that aims to boost employment and improve community spaces in the neighborhood.

The two organizations previously came together for a similar rebuilding project in Brownsville last fall.

"Partnering with the people who live and work in the community is the best way to make the neighborhoods they know and love better, strong and safer places to live," George said.

(Lead image: Photo courtesy of Rebuilding Together NYC)