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21 Homes To Get Help

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By JOSE PATINO GIRONA

jpatino@tampatrib.com

Published: January 21, 2009

WEST TAMPA - Liduvina "Lucy" Nieves's home for three decades was deteriorating. What remained was an emotional bond and a roof over her head.

She had two working electrical outlets, no working stove and, for three years, no hot water. She had problems with the plumbing, electrical system, windows and roof.

The lifelong homemaker didn't have money for the mounting repairs at her Union Street home.

Then Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay, a nonprofit group that helps rehabilitate homes for low-income and disabled people as well as military veterans, contacted her. It was seeking homeowners in Nieves's Old West Tampa neighborhood who qualified for assistance.

When Nieves's home was evaluated, sponsors and organizers scrapped the idea of making repairs. They decided to demolish the house and build a new one on the same lot that will look similar to her former home. They also will provide her with appliances.

"I'm elated. I'm surprised," Nieves said. "I have so many sensations that I don't understand."

Nieves's home is expected to be completed Jan. 30 when the organization will host its Kickoff to Rebuild, where 1,000 to 1,500 volunteers will help improve 21 homes in the Old West Tampa neighborhood. The work includes interior and exterior painting, electrical wiring, roofing, plumbing, installation of water heaters and caulking of windows.

The agency has partnered with the National Football League and more than 30 local and national businesses and organizations that are helping to sponsor the project. The Washington-based Rebuilding Together has done home rehabilitations in Super Bowl host cities for the past 14 years.

In the Tampa Bay area, the nonprofit group was founded in 2001 when Tampa last hosted the Super Bowl. That year the organization helped rehabilitate three homes in West Tampa.

The organization typically completes one to two homes a month. Last year it helped rehabilitate 41 homes in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, said Olga Gonzalez, Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay project manager and spokeswoman.

Gonzalez said she knocked on the doors of homes in Old West Tampa seeking homeowners who qualified for the program. Some people dismissed her, she said.

The agency helped select 21 homes in a five-block area that are near Raymond James Stadium, where Super Bowl XLIII will be held Feb. 1.

Initially the organization planned to work on 10 to 15 homes but found great need in the area, Gonzalez said.

"We can do one house here, one house there," Gonzalez said. "But it doesn't change a whole neighborhood."

Marilin and Norbiel Felipe also are benefiting from the project. Volunteers will remodel the kitchen and add a pantry to their home on Walnut Street. They also will paint the house, construct a driveway with gravel and mulch, repair exterior steps and create flower beds.

The Felipes welcome the assistance. Norbiel Felipe, 32, a truck driver and construction worker, has been out of fulltime work since September 2007.

He tried to build a pantry in their 103-year-old home but ran out of money.

Meanwhile, Liduvina Nieves, 66, sits patiently in her granddaughter's Tampa apartment waiting for her new home to be completed.

She has driven past it and sees what she once doubted becoming reality.
Nieves said she regularly prayed since her husband's death in 1986 that she would be able to improve her home, which she shares with four of her grandchildren.

"It appears that God listened to me and brought those people to my house," Nieves said.

Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 259-7659.

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