Home for the holidays: Fifth Ward family displaced by Hurricane Harvey receives new house
HOUSTON – Two days before Thanksgiving, a Houston family who lost their house due to Hurricane Harvey turned the key and unlocked the door to their brand-new home. Thanks to several nonprofit agencies, including Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation (FWCRC), Bayou City Relief, and BuildAid Houston, with the added help from David Weekley Homes, the McCrimmon family happily returned to their Fifth Ward neighborhood, just in time for the holidays.
“We are extremely excited that we were able to get this family back into a house in time for the holidays,” says Kathy Flanagan Payton CEO and president of the FWCRC. “This family, like countless others, has faced several hurdles relative to recovery. After two years, it will be good for them to finally have a home again to resume building memories for years to come.”
After Hurricane Harvey, the McCrimmon family was able to get help cleaning and gutting their original house, but the family was left without a viable place to live. They turned to Bayou City Relief, an agency backed by Bayou City Fellowship. Once the organization understood the extent of the destruction to the McCrimmon house, they began to seek other partners. That is how FWCRC, BuildAid Houston, and David Weekley Homes became involved.
After a few meetings, the community partners determined it was more financially sound to tear the original house down and build a new structure. An average investment of $35,000 cash or in-kind, by each partner made this new home possible, at no cost to the family.
“We are thankful that this collaboration of partners said ‘yes’ because saying ‘no’ was the easier option,” said Colleen Henneke, Director of Bayou City Relief.
“The building of this home is a model of how the faith-based community, the redevelopment community, disaster relief, and for-profit developers collaborated to help those in need,” Payton said. “As the project leaders would say, ‘We’re Houston Strong’”