SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (ABC 4 NEWS) - More than 250 volunteers with the World Changers organization are in Salt Lake City this week to provide free home repairs for 24 low income, elderly, & disabled home owners.
The organization has partnered with the cities of Salt Lake and South Salt Lake. Together they will replace roofs, siding, porches, wheelchair ramps, paint, and landscape homes in need at no cost to the homeowner.
This is the third year the organization has visited Salt Lake, bringing the cumulative number of volunteers to more than 800, and assistance to more than 75 families. This year almost all the volunteers are from outside of Utah.
The volunteers travel at their own expense, sleep in cots at Granite Park Jr. High, and bring with them all the tools and construction expertise to complete the projects in one week. The volunteers work in teams of 10-15 (generally 10 teenage youth and 5 adults), each team working on a different project throughout the two cities.
Since the volunteers provide all the labor and tools, Salt Lake City & South Salt Lake cover all the materials expense and are able to complete home repairs at a fraction of the cost of normal construction costs.
Homeowners apply throughout the year and are selected to receive the services based on need and project feasibility.
Construction begins Monday, July 6 and will finish Friday, July 10, 2009.
