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SBP Receives Grant From Justin J. Watt Foundation To Rebuild Homes in Houston

Dollars raised by Watt’s viral YouCaring campaign to fund the rebuilding of at least 100 homes by SBP, and an additional 100+ homes by partner organizations selected and supported by SBP

HOUSTON – The Justin J. Watt Foundation today announced a contribution to SBP, a national long-term disaster recovery non-profit organization. This donation will go directly to the rebuild and repair of at least 200 homes in Houston and the surrounding area for homeowners who lack the resources to recover on their own. SBP will work with local and national partner agencies to provide direct assistance to low and moderate income families with unmet housing need.

SBP efficiently and cost-effectively rebuilds disaster-impacted homes for families who cannot afford market rate contractors. Since its founding in 2006, six months after Hurricane Katrina in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, the organization has rebuilt more than 1,300 homes across seven disaster-impacted states. In September, SBP opened an office in Houston and began providing mucking, gutting and mold remediation services. The organization also shared free, vitalresources with homeowners to help those impacted make informed decisions that will help them avoid common pitfalls and speed their recovery. (sbpusa.org/start-here).

SBP and The Justin J. Watt Foundation share common passions of fueling community and building purpose in the face of adversity. Watt’s contribution paves the way for SBP to begin rebuilding homes utilizing its proven effective building model. As part of this grant, SBP will also share its approach, the systems and processes it has honed over the past twelve years, overall access to SBP’s model and free technical support with qualifying local and national non-profit organizations. Combined, these efforts will raise capacity across Texas’ non-profit rebuilding industry, thereby expeditiously serving a greater number of impacted homeowners.

SBP will deploy funds received from the Justin J. Watt Foundation in the following ways in order to achieve maximum impact:

  1. SBP will rebuild at least 100 homes in Houston and the surrounding area by the end of 2018.
  2. SBP will partner with other local and national non-profit organizations to equip them with SBP’s model, and funding to rebuild an additional 100+ homes by the end of 2018.

In total, SBP and its partner organizations plan to rebuild 200+ homes in the Houston area by the end of 2018, directly through the grant provided by the Justin J. Watt Foundation.

“As an organization, SBP has long believed that community is not defined by proximity”, said SBP co-founder and CEO, Zack Rosenburg. “That JJ raised more than $37 million from people across the country and around the world in the wake of Hurricane Harvey is confirmation of that belief. SBP’s mission is to shrink the time between disaster and recovery - and one of the ways SBP does that is by rebuilding efficiently - so now it is incumbent upon our organization to cause the greatest impact possible with every dollar that JJ, and his supporters have entrusted us with.”

“SBP is committed to rebuilding for disaster-impacted families in Houston until recovery is complete”, said SBP’s National Director of Recovery, Reese May. “Over the past 11 years, SBP has seen the human toll of delayed and unpredictable recoveries across the country. But thanks to the generosity of JJ Watt and all those who contributed to his crowdfunding campaign, I am confident that Houston and the state of Texas, can show the world how truly strong they are by realizing a prompt, efficient and predictable recovery.”

GRANT INFORMATION & BACKGROUND:

This grant was provided to SBP by the Justin J. Watt Foundation. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, JJ Watt, a star defensive end for the Houston Texans, launched a crowdfunding campaign on YouCaring.com with an initial goal of raising $200,000. By campaign’s end, just weeks later, the campaign had gone viral and raised more than $37million. SBP is the only rebuilding organization among the grantees of the foundation’s award.

The grant will enable SBP to rebuild at least 100 homes in the Houston area, and train local and national organizations to rebuild at least 100 more through 2018 - a minimum of 200 homes to be rebuilt by the end of 2018.

SBP will issue an RFP for partner organizations by November 15th. Organizations interested in partnering with SBP to rebuild and repair homes, and would like to receive the RFP are invited to email HarveyAid@sbpusa.org or fill out and submit this google form found at bit.ly/SBPTXpartner.

To learn more about SBP’s Harvey recovery work in Texas, apply for rebuilding assistance, register to volunteer and to donate, please visit: sbpusa.org/where-we-help/harvey-recovery

To learn more about the Justin J. Watt Foundation, visit: jjwfoundation.org

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About SBP

SBP's mission is to shrink time between disaster and recovery. Since its founding in 2006 in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, SBP has rebuilt homes for more than 1,300 families with the help of 180,000 volunteers in New Orleans; Joplin, MO; Staten Island, NY; Rockaway, NY; Monmouth and Ocean Counties, NJ; San Marcos, TX; Columbia, SC; White Sulphur Springs, WV and Baton Rouge, LA.

Through its Disaster Resilience and Recovery Lab (DRRL), SBP works to share lessons learned, prevent common barriers to recovery and help communities utilize SBP’s standardized, repeatable and proven-effective model.

SBP shrinks time between disaster and recovery via five interventions:

  1. Rebuild homes quickly after disasters by mobilizing private sector innovations and assigning a single point of contact to make the home rebuilding process faster and more predictable.

  2. Share rebuilding innovations with other rebuilding organizations to allow for efficient, predictable recovery on a national scale.

  3. Prepare home and business owners prior to and following disaster with specific steps to mitigate risk and improve resilience.

  4. Advise policy makers immediately after a disaster so they can deploy federal dollars sooner, and in a way that empowers an efficient recovery.

  5. Advocate for the reform of disaster recovery strategies in the U.S. to improve the predictability and speed of recovery.

To learn more, visitwww.SBPUSA.org and like/follow on Facebook & Twitter @SBPUSA