Campell, Ohio, volunteers were working together to transform abandoned houses into a rent-free housing for homeless veterans.
The project was initiated by Iron Soup Historical Preservation and some of the community volunteers to remodel two apartments on Saturday. They planned to move four veterans to these two apartments once the work is done.
Since there are 160 apartments in the area, there will be 320 more veterans to move in. As sought, this project is a long-term plan to re-create these abandoned homes to a lively community for the veterans within that locality.
Brian Reed, a community member who owns a construction business, said, "We've all been down and out. It's time to help out other people."
He added, "Pay it forward, paying it forward. You get a lot more in return."
It is in his construction firm where the bathrooms were remodelled free of charge. The Iron Soup Historical Preservation invested a lot of money to spend for the first two apartments. There are lot more at stake.
Reed did all of these by himself. "Preserve what we've got. That's what all these organizations are trying to do is preserve this back."
Iron Soup Historical Preservation and Reed's construction business firm are not the only ones who donated for this project. All the cabinets, tiles as well as every piece of furniture were donated from other volunteers aside from helping to build this future community like raking the leaves and wall painting are among of the contributions they did.
It was mentioned that this neighborhood was once full of modern apartments a century ago. However, in the moment, these old apartments will be remodelled to make them much more modern with the organizations' help.
Executive Director Linda Gens said, "There are all kinds of units around here. They can all be rehabbed and it doesn't take much money."
She added, "Our veterans are fighting, dying, getting maimed and everything for us, and they're homeless? They should be in a home. They should not be on the street somewhere."
"[The veterans] are excited about it, they can't wait," she said.
