Volunteers repair Englewood, Park Forest homes for National Rebuilding Day: ‘It’s like I’m in a new home’

In the 20 years Robert Washington has lived in his Englewood home, he has never been able to use the shower.

That changed Saturday as Walsh Construction workers cleaned his floors and put the finishing touches on nearly two weeks of renovations, including new electrical work, a fresh coat of paint, some window repairs and new floors.

“It makes me feel like I’m 20 years younger,” Washington said. “I feel comfortable… It’s like I’m in a new home.”

The renovations were part of National Rebuilding Day, an unofficial holiday celebrated by Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago and their network of 1,500 volunteers from local unions and businesses every last Saturday of April.

More than 60 homes in Englewood, West Englewood and suburban Park Forest had repairs done or the finishing touches put on them, with work ranging from installing mobility aids like grab bars, to overhauling large parts of electrical and plumbing systems. Many of the bigger jobs had gotten underway weeks ago.

Wanda Ramirez, the CEO of Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago, said the work-heavy celebration is an important tool to keeping neighborhoods together and ensuring people aren’t displaced from the communities they have lived in for decades.

Ramirez said while the group has focused on Englewood the last three years, they’ll likely shift to some neighborhoods on the West Side going forward to help with upkeep in other parts of the city.

“We want to maintain the integrity of the neighborhoods,” Ramirez told the Sun-Times. “We want to make sure these are the folks who can continue living here affordably. … Strengthening the foundations of these neighborhoods, these buildings and these communities is what’s important to us.”

Bertha Gee, who has lived in her West Englewood home for nearly 70 years, said she’d been disappointed about recent developments in the area, saying sometimes companies will “throw anything up” on an empty lot. She said she preferred the preservation of the homes she watched her children and fellow neighborhood kids grow up in.

“They’ve torn down a few homes over here and I don’t like that,” Gee said. “[But] it’s good to keep the neighborhood up.”

As a former block club vice president, Washington agreed, and said there should be more programs focused on repairing existing structures instead of tearing them down as a way to preserve Englewood for the next generation of kids on the block.

He said younger children are moving into the area — including his nephews, who had just stopped by to see the “new” place — and he wants to see the area keep its character for them.

“I don’t think we should be knocking down buildings,” Washington said. “[This saves] the neighborhood for the younger folk coming up. With them coming in and rebuilding, we can live here for a while.”

Washington says he plans to do his part by building a community garden on an empty lot on his block — that is, after he watches a Bulls game on the new flat-screen TV the Walsh Construction workers bought him with the leftover renovation funds to replace his VCR-player CRT TV.

Janika Dobynes came across the Rebuild program when looking for resources for older relatives and ended up helping her aunt apply while also submitting her own.

Dobynes said she moved into her place in 2019, and has tried to keep up with repairs herself, but it was tough juggling that while taking care of her dad and working as a surgical tech, until she lost her job last year and her roof started leaking.

“This is just great,” Dobynes said. “I just hope more people find out about it and more people volunteer.

She said she cried in her living room while volunteers took their lunch after fixing her roof, varnishing her cabinets, doing some electrical work and installing a rock garden in the front of the building, among other upgrades.

Dobynes said she plans to bring her experience doing her own repairs next year as a way to thank everyone involved for what they had done at her home, in addition to filling out another application for her aunt in the hopes she’s accepted the second time around.

“I just want to get involved and help pay it forward,” Dobynes said. “We have to take care of the elderly and each other. … Let’s get the area together and make Englewood beautiful again.”

For application information, visit rebuildingtogether-chi.com.