In a year when everyone in the world was told to STAY HOME to reduce the spread of COVID-19, SBP's home rebuilding work became even more urgent. How could a kid participate in virtual learning if their home had no power? How could a senior maintain physical distance if he was in temporary housing? How could an immunocompromised person stay healthy if her home was filled with mold? Thanks to SBP's generous network of partners and donors, who believe that everyone deserves to live in a safe and secure home, more families moved home via SBP's rebuilding program in 2020 than any prior year.
SBP's 2020 impact reached beyond home rebuilding, and addressed problems upstream to minimize the effect of disasters in the future. What we could not do in-person was adapted to the virtual world. When we uncovered a need triggered by COVID-19, our team found a way to address it and share knowledge to help others.
The impact shared in this report was made possible thanks to SBP's partners, donors, volunteers, staff, board and AmeriCorps members. Thank you to all who believe in SBP's mission and the families we serve.
2020 Hurricane Season
2020 was a record-setting storm season, with three storms hitting before the official start of the season. Knowing that COVID-19 would affect SBP's response capabilities, our team began planning for storm season in March. We added specific safety protocols to keep our team and storm survivors safe. When the time came to deploy, SBP's team was ready to safely and effectively help families in their time of need.
Southwest Louisiana - Hurricanes Laura and Delta
Hurricane Laura was the strongest storm ever to hit Louisiana. With a 10-foot storm surge, tornadoes and 150 mph winds, this Category 4 storm had a devastating impact on communities and residents in Southwest Louisiana, who are still struggling to rebuild today.
SBP has focused rebuilding efforts on Vinton, LA, a small community that received very little FEMA assistance and has a large population of low-income residents who cannot afford to rebuild without help.
"Vinton is a tight-knit community where everybody knows everybody. Our homes have been in our families for generations. There's a lot of tradition and memories here. When the storm came, we couldn't rely on our neighbors to help because they were in the same boat."- Reggie, SBP client
SBP's goal is to rebuild at least 50 homes in Vinton, LA in 2021
Welcome HOME, Keith and Brooklyn
Keith is a single dad who grew up in Vinton, LA. His childhood home was severely damaged in Hurricanes Laura and Delta. He used all his savings to make repairs but the damage outweighed the funding he had to pay for repairs. SBP was able to complete the repairs and bring Keith and Brooklyn home in time for the holidays. UPS's Joseph "Big Brown" James made the day extra special when he delivered Christmas gifts for the family!
COVID-19 Response
When the impacts of COVID-19 became a reality, SBP relied on its values to lead the way. It's not in our team's DNA to sit on the sidelines in times of crisis, so we embraced our values of Steering Through Turbulence, Curious Connecting, Owning the Route, Yokoten and the Mom Rule. The programs outlined below addressed a different type of disaster... and made a real human impact!
Client Support
For the most vulnerable populations, the economic toll of COVID-19 is devastating. Across 10 operating sites, SBP's AmeriCorps team contacted over 1,200 past and present clients to connect them with local resources like rental assistance programs, food distribution centers and federal assistance applications. Where our teams were limited in face-to-face contact, they made up for in phone calls.
Double Entreé
Double Entrée was designed to solve two problems simultaneously: widespread food insecurity and the threat of financial devastation and job loss among restaurants.
- SBP provided funding to small business restaurant partners to cover raw food costs,
- Restaurant partners created fresh, healthy meals at a cost of $5 per meal, and
- Community nonprofit partners delivered meals to vulnerable clients within their network and to SBP clients.
The program, which ran over the course of 3 months, helped to preserve the jobs of 18 employees across eight small restaurants while serving 34,155 fresh, healthy meals, taking some burden off of local food pantries and food banks that, in many cases, were seeing four times their normal demand.
CARES Act Support for Small Businesses
The Federal CARES Act included a program called the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). SBP's finance team researched the program and developed a training to help over 1,000 nonprofits and small businesses navigate and utilize this program, which was designed to protect jobs that were at-risk due to the economic impacts of COVID-19.
PPE Distribution
SBP procured and distributed over $1.5 million worth PPE, such as critical kn95 and surgical masks, to essential workers across Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey, and New Orleans thanks to local and national partners. In April, SBP’s New York office also identified 6 additional hospitals for our partners at Toyota to donate life-saving face shields.
More than a HOUSE: Home Equity breeds Equity
Disasters disproportionately impact low-income communities of color. For a low-income homeowner, their greatest asset is their home. After disaster, housing value drastically decreases. According to the Urban Institute, home equity makes up a disproportionate amount of overall net worth for black households. When SBP rebuilds a home, the value is restored, giving the resident more leverage and potential for upward economic mobility.
Florida resident, Virginia C.'s home was at risk of being demolished until SBP stepped in to help. After making repairs to her home, which decreased in value by 60% after the storm, her equity nearly doubled its pre-storm value:
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
Disasters exacerbate housing affordability crises in the cities they hit. SBP's Opportunity Housing program exists to build new, affordable homes in areas where low- to moderate-income residents would be priced out.
FOR RENT & FOR SALE
In 2020, SBP developed 15 doubles (30 units) in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward (left). These homes are rented to the city's essential residents like teachers and hospitality workers.
Ms. Landa (pictured with blue key) is a home health nurse who purchased her first home through SBP.
Proving "affordable" can be sustainable
In January of 2020, SBP opened The St. Peter, a 50-unit mixed-income residential community located adjacent to SBP’s national headquarters. 50% of the units are set aside for veterans and thanks to a partnership with Entergy, the building is Louisiana's first net-zero apartment building in Louisiana. This means that, as long as residents adhere to certain usage guidelines, they will incur little or no monthly energy bills. SBP is working to replicate this project in Houston, TX in 2021.
The St. Peter won the HUD Secretary's Distinguished National Award for innovative public and philanthropic partnerships
Solving Problems Upstream
SHARE
SBP believes that, in the people-serving world, it is essential to share what is working. We take years of experience in disaster recovery and train nonprofit partners and share resources like AmeriCorps members and funding to expand impact.
In 2020, SBP partnered with the American Red Cross to accelerate Hurricane Florence recovery in eastern North Carolina. SBP worked through our Share Intervention to couple focused capacity building training with the resources needed to drastically increase our nonprofit partners' ability to serve Florence-impacted communities. In total, we shared 15 AmeriCorps members and more than $1.6M in funding to 8 nonprofit organizations providing rebuilding support to survivors. Through this program, our partners rebuilt 78 homes across North Carolina in just 8 months.
"Every dollar SBP shares with a partner nonprofit carries a value of $1.50 because it comes with training, team support and an infrastructure of resources." -Zack Rosenburg, SBP Co-founder & CEO
PREPARE
We've all come to have a new appreciation for our homes - now offices, schools, houses of worship and so much more. Now more than ever, they need to be protected. SBP's preparedness intervention is designed to give homeowners the tools they need to fortify their homes and finances before disaster. After disaster, we help homeowners navigate the path to recovery and avoid common pitfalls.
2020 Preparedness Program:
Flood Preparedness Campaign reached 18 Million+ people
Engaged 216,580 homeowners via eLearning platform
Post-disaster resources shared with 83,301 storm survivors
16 post-disaster training sessions for 591 storm survivors
REFORM
Community Advocacy
COVID-19 impacted the way FEMA conducted disaster damage assessments in 2020, moving to remote assessments rather than having FEMA assessors on-the-ground. SBP's team evaluated the way this impacted funding assistance for storm survivors and compared this data to payments made after a comparable storm in 2018 (Hurricane Michael, Florida Panhandle). The chart below shows that, while payments were made faster than they were in 2018, the average award was less than half those made in Florida. SBP shared this information with local and state officials to help advocate for more funding for storm survivors.
Average Housing Assistance Awards:
Hurricane Laura Southwest LA 2020 = $1,817.18
Hurricane Michael Florida Panhandle 2018 = $3,917.41
FEMA funding awards for homeowners were less than half than those in a comparable storm in 2018.
Government Advisory
SBP's Leadership Practitioner Course (LPC) is improving the way government leaders approach disaster recovery in America through an intensive course and a series of webinars for officials charged with spending federal recovery funds (HUD CDBG-DR dollars). SBP targets state and local CDBG-DR program leaders who are experiencing significant challenges and delays preventing their respective communities from making a full recovery. We also put great emphasis on training grantees who are early in the process or who will likely receive a CDBG-DR grant in the future. It is vital to reach leaders who are in the beginning stages of program development to better avoid common planning and procurement mistakes that may hinder a program’s ability to succeed in the long term.
209 Government Leaders trained
$20 billion of Federal funding influenced
Participants from 15 states/territories
"After the SBP training in January, we have completed more homes in the past two quarters than we had in the first two years of implementation." - Michelle T., West Virginia Development Office
We are deeply grateful to our partners, donors, volunteers, staff and AmeriCorps team for your collective support of SBP's mission to shrink the time between disaster and recovery. Together, we will not only continue to address immediate human needs, but also build resilience so that disaster survivors of tomorrow have a better path to recovery.