Habitat Santa Barbara provides help to Carpinteria homeowners
Volunteers from Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County help with Friday debris removal and cleanup at Sandpiper Mobile Home Village, which was hit by a tornado earlier this week.
Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County (Habitat Santa Barbara) mobilized a team of volunteers and staff Friday to assist Carpinteria homeowners impacted by Tuesday’s tornado.
“It went really well. We had about 22 people including staff and volunteers who came out to help with the project,” Susan Renehan, the nonprofit’s director of philanthropy and external affairs, told the News-Press. “We were already working in the community with low-income homeowners. So when the tornado happened on Tuesday, we were already in a great position to come in and help with cleanup and debris removal.”
The volunteer work took place at the Sandpiper Mobile Home Village, which was directly in the path of the tornado. A rare event in Southern California, Tuesday’s wind event caused major damage to more than two dozen homes.
“Disaster recovery is an important part of the work of Habitat for Humanity,” Jessica de L’Arbre, Habitat Santa Barbara’s CEO, said. “Building and repairing homes is at the heart of everything we do.
“Natural disasters often disproportionately impact low-income community members, and we are grateful that we can be a part of the response to this extreme weather event,” she said. “With the recent extreme weather, including Tuesday’s tornado, we have had a huge increase in calls from low-income households asking for assistance with roof repairs.
“We are honored to respond to the call for help — for the individual homes as well as to revitalize the community as a whole with clean-up and safety improvements.”
Volunteers on Friday also assisted homeowners in learning about Habitat Santa Barbara’s Home Repair Program, which provides critical home repairs to low-income homeowners.
“Everyone was feeling really grateful to be there. We had longtime volunteers and some first time volunteers. There was a lot of camaraderie and cooperation. People were feeling really grateful they could be there wanting to make sure homes and home owners were safe,” said Ms. Renehan.
“We removed enough debris including plastic, corrugated plastic and metal to fill enough to fill an entire Dumpster plus a separate Dumpster of green waste that was on the roadways. We also did general cleanup, cleaning up trash and debris in the community.”
Habitat Santa Barbara said mobile and modular home communities are a critical part of Santa Barbara’s affordable housing stock that must be preserved. The organization has provided repairs in this Carpinteria community for years prior to the 2023 wind event.
“We want people to know about how we are familiar with this community, and our year-round critical home repair program is available to low-income homeowners throughout South County,” said Ms. Renehan.
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
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To learn more about Habitat of Humanity for Southern Santa Barbara, go to sbhabitat.org or call 805-692-2226.
