SAN ANTONIO - The city of San Antonio and an army of volunteers are helping elderly homeowners save historic properties.

 Caption: Program aims to repair historic homes, revitalize neighborhoods - WOAI Story

 

Arthur Carreon and his three sons are volunteering their time to make these repairs to a west side home built in 1924.

This is part of a program from the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation called REHABARAMA.

“There’s a lot of folks out here that are not fortunate enough to hire people to do work like that so what we want to do is to just give back to the community," Carreon said who works as a foreman with Sundt Construction. 

The home needs some serious TLC.

The owner is 71 years old, is on a fixed income and has a hard time getting around.

The original steps need to be completely replaced and the house needs a fresh coat of paint.

“She will be very happy that she does not need to struggle anymore," said Regina Dominguez, the homeowners daughter. 

REHABARAMA brings together groups of volunteers and contractors to make repairs and maintain historic and affordable housing.

So far the program has helped make almost a half million dollars worth of repairs to more than 50 homes in San Antonio.

It’s paid for entirely through donations.

Not only does it help homeowners in need but can help raise the value of all the homes in the neighborhood.

“You will see other neighbors come out and kind of start working on their house or picking up that project that they’ve been putting off and cleaning up the yard. It generates a sense of pride and reinvestment in the neighborhood," said Shanon Miller, the director of the Office of Historic Preservation for San Antonio. 

The original plan was to have dozens of volunteers working on seven homes this weekend but the majority of the work was delayed because of Friday's rain.

There’s a silver lining here, it gives the city an extra week to find even more volunteers.

If you’d like to do that you can sign up online.