4/12/2017

Contact:
Kim Walker, 704-940-3149
Kathy Rowan, 704-591-8945

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – More than 700 Realtors® – armed with tool boxes, yard equipment and a commitment to service – will be out in force across Mecklenburg and Iredell counties on Friday, April 28 to help homeowners with critical exterior repairs and adaptive and safety modifications. The work begins at 8 a.m. and is expected to conclude by 5 p.m.  

Realtors® are being deployed to 26 sites in the two counties, including nine homes in the Genesis Park neighborhood and one nonprofit organization. The Statesville Avenue Corridor area work marks the second year Realtor® volunteers are joining with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership in a neighborhood revitalization effort. Other sites in Huntersville, Statesville and Mooresville will also get needed repairs. Realtors® Care Day (RCD) volunteer teams take on work such as repairing gutters, building and repairing decks, painting, building wheelchair ramps and more. 

One special project will accompany the standard home construction/repair work. Hope House in Huntersville, which serves women and children in need of transitional shelter, will receive much-needed help with landscaping and property improvement. 

And this year, Realtors® are adding to the safe shelter component of RCD by including a food drive. The public is invited to participate. The Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association office at 1201 Greenwood Cliff is the primary drop-off site for food, including canned goods, beans, rice, pasta, peanut butter and similar items.  Other locations include Our Lady of Consolation Church, 2301 Statesville Ave. and Charlotte Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1801 Double Oaks Rd. For a complete list of acceptable food donations and drop-off points, visit www.carolinahome.com/food-drive. 

“As Realtors®, we believe every citizen deserves safe, secure housing,” Hege added. “We also feel strongly that no one in our community should be hungry. We are a community of abundance; sharing the bounty is the right thing to do.”

The cumulative RCD volunteer efforts, an initiative of the Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association Housing Opportunity Foundation, represent a total financial impact exceeding $1 million. 

“It’s always an honor to help neighbors in our area,” said RCD Chairman Mike Hege. “Most of the residents we assist are elderly or disabled and unable to make these critical, safety-related repairs themselves.” 

“Year after year, hundreds of Realtors® set aside personal gain to answer the call to serve our greater community,” he continued. “We’re thrilled that our members’ commitment to this effort never wavers, and in fact, only deepens. And we couldn’t do this without professional assistance from our partners – builders, developers, painters and home inspectors. This truly takes a village, and we have one.” 

Mecklenburg County Food pantries benefitting from the food drive include: 

• Our Lady of Consolation Catholic Church on Statesville Ave.
• Charlotte Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Genesis Park neighborhood

The urban Brightwalk community is spearheading support for the food drive, which will benefit food pantries in the surrounding area.

In Northern Mecklenburg County, food donations will benefit:

• Loaves & Fishes at Ada Jenkins Center food pantry
• Hope House  

Since 2009, Realtors® have fanned out across the region for the annual RCD, an all-day, all-volunteer, home-repair project that has helped more than 200 homeowners and nonprofits.

Realtors® Care Day

RCD advances the sustainable and affordable housing mission of the foundation by providing area homeowners with critical, but often unaffordable, exterior home repairs and/or adaptive safety modifications. Many of the homeowners are elderly, or challenged by serious physical limitations and require assistance to maintain safe and sustainable housing. 

Over the past nine years, more than 5,000 Realtor® volunteers have participated in RCD. The 2017 event promises to build upon this success, with the continued support of nearly 100 local businesses and organizations pitching in with financial sponsorships and in-kind donations. 

For the ninth consecutive year, Lowe’s has supported Realtors® Care Day by developing a process for the organization, as well as management and delivery of materials to all home sites within the two-county area. Lowe’s staff will assist throughout the day in meeting the project needs until all sites have been completed. 

The Housing Opportunity Foundation also welcomes back the commitment of several regional partners that have helped identify homeowners eligible for assistance with critical home-repair needs: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, City of Charlotte Neighborhood & Business Services Department; Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte and Our Towns Habitat for Humanity.

MEDIA COVERAGE OPPORTUNITIES

Friday, April 28 (9:30 a.m.-noon) 

Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association and Housing Opportunity Foundation leaders, nonprofit partners and Realtor® volunteers will be available for media interviews during the designated time period at the three media sites below. 

• 412 East 19th St., Charlotte, 28206 In conjunction with Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte, Realtor® volunteers will replace all windows, repair siding, replace storm doors,install new kitchen cabinets and repair and repaint the entire smoke-damaged interior walls and trim. 
• Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Double Oaks, Charlotte, 28206 Realtor® volunteers will perform critical repairs for nine homes along four blocks of Double Oaks Rd.  The church is also one of the drop-off locations for the food drive. 
• Hope House – 15604 Northcross Drive, Huntersville, 28078 Realtor® volunteers will work on landscaping and property improvement.

About the Housing Opportunity Foundation

The Housing Opportunity Foundation is the charitable arm of the Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association.  The foundation is dedicated to funding, education, advocacy and leadership programs that are focused on fair and affordable housing and workforce-housing initiatives.  The foundation serves to position and educate Realtors® as leaders, promote homeownership and provide funding to create housing opportunities.

For more information on Realtors® Care Day 2017, visit www.RealtorsCareDay.com.

The Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association is a trade association that provides its more than 9,200 Realtor® members with the resources and services they need to conduct ethical, professional, successful and profitable businesses. The association is dedicated to being the region's primary resource for residential real estate information. The association operates the Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. (CarolinaMLS), which has more than 11,000 Subscribers and is the private cooperative Realtors® use for access to tens of thousands of residential listings in a multicounty service area, including Charlotte, the Piedmont area of North Carolina and South Carolina, and beyond.

Original Publish Date: 4/12/2017