Rebuilding Together: A Group Helping Communities Hit Hard by Sandy

Photo: on left, Samantha “Sam” Cannistraci, and Olivia Brackins. Credit: Marcus Ayala.

By Marcus Ayala

Terry Scott is the Director of Construction for the New York City branch of Rebuilding Together NYC. He came to New York all the way from Seattle after Super Storm Sandy.

There are 130 affiliates of Rebuilding Together nationwide, with all working in different ways. Rebuilding Together NYC serves all five boroughs of New York City. The organization offers work to non-working resident, and it’s able to do this by virtue of being a nonprofit. Also, as a non-profit they help other nonprofits.

The cost of their operation went from $200,000 a year to $5 million annually. They recently received a grant of $100,000 from Wells Fargo and that has made it possible to work with houses in Brownsville, a community that Scott called “one of the more forgotten neighborhoods.”

Rebuilding Together NYC teamed with AmeriCorps and Brownsville Workforce Training recruits to provide free home repairs to three Brownsville residents, as part of a long-term community revitalization initiative, which they call their Critical Home Repair Program (CHR).

Their program took them to Connie Little’s home where much work needed to be done, given that she is an elderly woman in dangerous living conditions. Her floors were in terrible shape, with tiles out of place and floors very slippery. Her house is the first of three houses the nonprofit will be working on in Brownsville.

This is going to be the group’s last year in Brownsville. They bounce around helping neighborhoods that were affected by Hurricane Sandy, neighborhoods like Red Hook and the Rockaways.

Scott has a special place in his heart for Red Hook, having lived on Van Brunt St. in that neighborhood for two years. He moved to Gowanus last May. Scott believes his group has done quite a bit to help all those communities, especially given that they had only two staff members five years ago.

Two more people working with Rebuilding Together are Samantha “Sam” Cannistraci and Olivia Brackins. They are technically staffers with AmeriCorps, the nation’s domestic Peace Corps, but they effectively part of the Rebuilding Together team. There are a total of 15 people working with Rebuilding Together. Some of the Rebuilding Together workers deal with volunteers, including those in a project called “She Builds,” which has 100-120 volunteers.

She Builds recently helped paint a building, using some 350 gallons of paint, which was purchased through donations.

Among those being helped along in life by acquiring work experience is a young man named Tyrique. He spent three weeks in the classroom and now is spending three weeks out in the field. He sees value in working with a team and getting the hands-on experience that Rebuilding Together offers. He enjoys helping others.

All the Rebuilding Together workers affirm pleasure at the chance to help others. They have two more houses to work on in Brownsville and they say they will continue to do all they can for New York City’s communities.