KB Home creates model home in Northridge, California, to help fund construction of San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission's 90-bed family homeless shelter, which includes private family sleeping quarters, communal spaces such as a common dining room

Allison Oesterle

NORTHRIDGE, California , October 3, 2013 (press release) – KB Home Donates Time and Talent to Help Assist Homeless Families

In partnership with the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, KB Home recently helped create a unique “model home” in Northridge, one that will serve to help fund the construction of a 90-bed “Home Again” family homeless shelter in the community.

The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, which currently maintains a 30-bed emergency shelter in North Hollywood, is in the process of building this new facility, which will include private family sleeping quarters, a commercial kitchen, common dining room and living spaces, meeting rooms, a computer education center, playground and garden, as well as administrative offices for services offered throughout the Valley.

The national homebuilder often receives requests for assistance from a variety of non-profit groups, but this specific request resonated with them. Mission officials had wanted to refurbish a small building adjacent to the new ‘Home Again’ facility and asked KB Home for some assistance with an ambitious new project. The response was overwhelming. KB Home took the Mission’s initial request for paint, simple furniture, desks and wall hooks – symbolic of a safe place for children to hang their backpacks – for one bedroom and is providing those and much, much more. Now that this 4-bedroom model home is complete, it will serve as a showcase where potential donors, funders, stakeholders and others can see the Mission’s vision for its new facility as well as the impact it can have in the community.

“We didn’t even have a car to sleep in – we had run out of choices,” said a father of two currently staying at the North Hollywood Mission Shelter, “If it weren’t for the Mission, my family would have been on the streets. They’ve given us a roof over our heads and hope.”

More than a dozen employees of KB Home and their subcontractors and suppliers along with staff from the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission working diligently together, contributed approximately 1,000 hours of their time and talents over the last few months rehabbing the four-bedroom, two-story duplex.

“KB Home is proud to be able to extend our expertise in building homes and creating communities to support charitable causes like the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, in our hometown of Los Angeles and in each of the 33 cities KB Home serves,” said Jeffrey Mezger, KB Home President and Chief Executive Officer. “I commend Tom DiPrima and the entire KB Home Southern California team for their leadership in spearheading this project and helping the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission improve the quality of life for our neighbors in need.”

Improvements to the facility included new tile showers, flooring, vanities and sinks, new plumbing fixtures, new air conditioning units, smoke alarms, ceiling fans, window treatments and interior painting. The outside of the building has also been repainted, shutters were installed and the area surrounding the house has been landscaped, complete with sprinklers.

“The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission is more than just a shelter. The organization gives families hope and empowers them by providing the opportunities they need to get back on track and rebuild their lives,” said Tom DiPrima, Executive Vice President, KB Home Southern California division. “When KB Home was presented the opportunity to help these families we saw it as a blessing and we look forward to further strengthening this important partnership in the future.”

Once the improvements were finished, KB Home’s decorators staged each of the four bedrooms to highlight the varied clientele served by the Mission; single mother with an infant, single male veteran with children, intact family and single mother with school-aged children. The living room is furnished with a sectional sofa, rug, coffee table, flat panel TV and DVD player. A meeting area downstairs is set up for program outreach with a conference table and decorated with original art.

“KB Home is a shining example of what corporate citizenship can, and should be,” said Wade Trimmer, Executive Director of the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission.

After the 90-bed shelter is completed and operational, the building refurbished by KB Home will be repurposed into a recovery home for female clients, another type of facility critical to the Mission’s purpose.

Those who donated for KB Home’s efforts include Leonard’s Carpet Service, Gothic Landscape, Sherwin Williams Paint, West Coast Painting and Drywall, Triomphe Design, T&R Painting and Drywall, Interior Images Design, Century Plastering, Airplus of California, Pacific Builders Hardware and Lights, Moen, Kohler, LMI, RSI Cabinets, ECI Electric, KPS Power Home and Tom and Lauri DiPrima.

Homeless families account for more than one-third of the homeless population in the US and approximately 17,000 of the estimated 82,000 homeless individuals living in Los Angeles County. With shelters across the region filled to capacity, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimates that there are 475 unsheltered homeless households with children in the city of Los Angeles each night. At the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, 50 percent of the guests who stay at the center are children less than 12 years old. There is an average of 30 families on the shelter’s waiting list.

The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission partners with the community to offer refuge, recovery and restoration to those in need; providing emergency food, shelter and clothing and helping those facing challenges to lead productive and independent lives. To learn more about the Home Again project, visit their website at www.homeagaincampaign.org.

Contacts

Media:
Stacy Miller,818-402-5806
661-222-9000
Stacy@StacyMillerPA.com

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