SAN FRANCISCO—PG&E today (Oct. 24) donated $300,000 to fund a new Habitat for Humanity program to restore distressed homes and community projects in neighborhoods in San Francisco, the East Bay and Bakersfield.
The program will help bring the utility’s talent, technology and resources to help revive neighborhoods in economically challenged areas. The program will provide funding and expertise toward weatherization, energy efficiency retrofits and employee volunteer support of neighborhood improvement projects.
PG&E’s Karen Austin and Phil Kilbridge of Habitat for Humanity announced a project to rebuild neighborhoods. (Photos by Kris Leja, Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco.)
Karen Austin, PG&E’s chief information officer and a senior vice president, was on hand celebrating the launch of the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative at the Bayview Hunters Point YMCA, one of the community buildings that will be renovated thanks to the new program.
PG&E donated $250,000 to Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco and more than $50,000 to community projects in Bakersfield.
“PG&E is proud to make this renovation possible for Bayview Hunters Point YMCA, a place that’s vital to the health and vibrancy of this community,” said Austin, who also is a YMCA San Francisco board member. “Together, we’re building a brighter future for the people we serve.”
Since the inception of the company’s Solar Habitat Program in 2007, PG&E has donated more than $6 million to help respond to the housing needs of families in Northern and Central California and has assisted in the construction of 416 solar-powered Habitat homes. In addition, thousands of PG&E employees have worked at Habitat build sites throughout California.
With this new initiative, PG&E and Habitat are now doing more to ensure the livability of newly re-established communities.
PG&E’s Karen Austin joins Fred Brewer of Habitat for Humanity in a celebration at the Bayview Hunter’s Point YMCA on Wednesday where PG&E and Habitat for Humanity announced a neighborhood revitalization program.
The program will rehabilitate and renovate facilities and homes and focus on creating new housing for working families and rejuvenate troubled neighborhoods into vibrant, safe and inviting places to live for current residents.
By the end of the year in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood alone, Habitat for Humanity will have repaired seven homes, organized 24 park cleanup days and renovated the Bayview Opera House, a historic landmark in San Francisco. This will be in addition to the 200 Habitat homes currently in the area.
“The Bayview Hunters Point YMCA is tremendously thankful for the support from PG&E and Habitat for Humanity,” said Chuck Collins, president and CEO of YMCA San Francisco.
“With this new Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, PG&E and Habitat are ensuring that our communities are more livable, healthy and safe. Their generous support to the Y has provided much needed renovations for vital community centers such as ours and we cannot thank them enough.”
Philip Kilbridge, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, said its partnership with PG&E solves a variety of concerns faced by communities hit hardest by the country’s economic crisis.
“With the support of great partners like PG&E and the Bayview Hunters Point YMCA, we are able to work with families and neighborhood organizations and to move our work past the sidewalks in front of the homes that we construct and into the communities in which we build,” he said.
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