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Profile: HomeAid Helps Find Houses for the Homeless

By , About.com Guide

Playhouse Photo

A playhouse from the Orange County Project Playhouse exhibit.

Photo © Lisa Hallett Taylor

This is HomeAid:

HomeAid is a national nonprofit organization with the mission to build dignified housing where homeless people and families can rebuild their lives. Established in 1989 by the Orange County chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California, HomeAid is the only community-based organization that builds and renovates houses across the entire homeless Continuum of Care -- from emergency shelters to transitional housing to permanent supportive housing.

It acts as the liasion between service providers, volunteers, builders and contractors to build or renovate housing for the homeless. To date, HomeAid has 25 service provider partners and has built 43 developments that serve victims of domestic violence, pregnant homeless women, abused and abandoned children, homeless adults living with HIV/AIDS and homeless families.

Follow-up Care and Maintenance

Modeled after the Housing Development program, HomeAid continues to support their service provider partners by returning to completed houses and developments to repair and maintain them.

Project Playhouse

HomeAid's largest fundraiser is Project Playhouse, held annually in various locations throughout the U.S. Professionally designed, engineered and constructed child-sized homes are displayed and auctioned to raised funds to build housing for temporarily homeless people.

There are now 11 Project Playhouse events across the U.S. benefiting HomeAid chapters. They are: Atlanta; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Inland Empire, CA; Las Vegas; Los Angeles / Ventura; New York; Orange County; San Diego and Washington,D.C.

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