MILWAUKEE — More than 500 volunteers joined this year’s Block Build MKE to fix up homes, for free, in a Milwaukee neighborhood.
Block Build MKE is an annual event hosted by Revitalize Milwaukee. Over the course of a weekend, volunteers and corporations work on repairs and beautification updates for homeowners who are low-income elderly, veterans, and/or those living with a disability.
Revitalize Milwaukee CEO Lynnea Katz-Petted said one million dollars were invested in Lindsay Heights in order to make the repairs free for its residents.
“Our homeowners have really built this city, right? They came before us. They allow us to be able to live in the world that we live in and, for me, it’s really important to help them because it’s a payback. There is this whole thing about helping elderly people stay in their homes and also people as a humanity and I think more and more that if we can help each other, we can elevate the entire community which is so important,” said Katz-Petted.
One of the volunteers, Amal Ali, focused her time working on a porch at a Lindsay Heights home, removing old planks to be replaced with new pieces.
The home Ali, and other volunteers, worked on belongs to Kazetta Eubanks. Eubanks said she is thankful that volunteers are helping repair her home.
“I grew up in this home. This is my heritage, so I am so grateful for the work that they are doing. They are making my home stand a little longer than what it was already is. This is a over a 100-year-old home,” said Eubanks.
Although this is her first time doing a home repair, she said it didn’t take her long to realize that she enjoys this type of work.
“When you do this for a whole block in a whole neighborhood, I think it motivates the people living in the neighborhood to take care of their homes in their area and neighborhoods. It just brings happiness to the people here and I think that’s all the difference that’s needed,” said Ali.
Eubanks’ residence was just one home that’s part of a larger effort to restore dozens of homes in Milwaukee’s Lindsay Heights.
“This is a part of the city that I live in, so making it the best it can be and helping the best it can be. Part of my faith is to help your neighbors and these are my neighbors,” said Ali.
Ali said she believes this is the least she can do for the part of Wisconsin she calls home.