HomeAid America, a building industry charity and one of the nation's largest builders of housing for the homeless, will be sponsored by Wells Fargo to host an "unselfie" photo booth at the Pacific Coast Builder Conference in San Francisco on June 21-23rd. As part of this promotion, Wells Fargo will be donating $23,000 to the charity. Wells Fargo has been a long-time supporter and contributed over $1 million to support HomeAid and help launch the expansion of new chapters nationwide over the past 16 years.
"We are very excited and grateful to be partnering again with Wells Fargo at PCBC this year," said Peter Simons, CEO of HomeAid America. "We feel our photo booth at the Show—generously donated by PCBC and the California Building Industry Association—will bring great visibility to our efforts. Visitors can have "unselfies" taken that will be posted on HomeAid and Wells Fargo's social media sites to bring attention to the ongoing battle to end homelessness."
"Wells Fargo values the long term partnership we have had with HomeAid," said Elena Bennett, senior vice president, Wells Fargo Homebuilder Banking Group. "We are delighted to be supporting such an impactful organization that is addressing the significant issue of homelessness in our communities by partnering with the building industry." Bennett serves on the Board of Directors of HomeAid America.
"CBIA and PCBC are proud to support the important role that HomeAid plays in housing America's homeless," said Linda Baysari, senior vice president of PCBC.
HomeAid was founded in California by the building industry in 1989 as a way to give back to the community by addressing the issue of homelessness. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness, each year over 3.5 million Americans experienced homelessness at some point. Nearly 1.5 million of them were children.
HomeAid's program identifies charities in the community working to help the homeless that need facilities in which to house people and provide programmatic resources such as job skills training and financial counseling, as well as physical and emotional support. HomeAid then finds builders who are willing to take on these projects and build them at a deep discount by enlisting their trade partners to give their time and materials as in-kind donations.
The HomeAid model has been proven to be hugely successful and has expanded from California to chapters around the country. Currently, HomeAid has 17 chapters in 12 states, typically affiliated with the local Building Industry Association. These chapters have built over 440 housing projects over the organization's 27 year history valued at over $210 million. More importantly, these facilities have housed over 250,000 people who would otherwise have been homeless.
