Northern Colorado Home Builder Association Wins Disability Initiative Award

Orlando, Florida, Jan 14, 2005 –The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has named the Home Builder Association of Northern Colorado the winner of its 2005 Disability Initiative Award, sponsored by the National Organization on Disability and the National Housing Endowment. The $1,000 award cash, presented at a ceremony held today at NAHB’s International Builders Show in Orlando, honors the Northern Colorado HBA for its successful “Wheelchair Ramp” community service project.

Spearheaded by the HBA’s Remodelers Council, the project has involved hundreds of volunteer hours by builders and remodelers who constructed wheelchair ramps at no charge at the homes of citizens with disabilities. Since 2002 when the project started, the Northern Colorado HBA has built at the pace of one new ramp a month and has completed 36 ramps.

According to the HBA’s 2003 Remodelers Council Chairman, Dwight Sailer of High Craft Builders, the association found that there was a great need among the disabled in their community for accessible entrances, but that such home renovations can be too expensive for citizens with limited incomes. The HBA raises funds for the project through private donations as well as through proceeds from its annual home and remodeling show. “No one in need is ever turned down,” said Sailer.

“NAHB and the National Housing Endowment are proud to partner with NOD to recognize an HBA that has successfully engaged its members in a model project to enhance the lives of persons with disabilities,” said Troy Patterson, director of development for the National Housing Endowment. “This is a very practical project, but one that is so life-enhancing,” he said.

In addition to the winning HBA, four other Home Builders Associations were recognized as honorable mentions. They are the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders for “The Miracle League House,” the Home Builder’s Association of Fairfield County, CT for its “Ramp-A-Thon,” the Northeast Florida Builders Association, “Builders Care Ramp-A-Thon” and the Home Builders Association of Lincoln, Nebraska for “HBAL’s Ramp.”

The National Housing Endowment is the philanthropic arm of NAHB. In 1987, NAHB and a visionary group of leaders in the housing industry created the National Housing Endowment as a vehicle for giving back to their industry.

Contact: Denise Malatesta (800) 368-5242, ext. 8550 Fax: (202) 266-8120 E-mail: dmalatesta@nahb.com

#####

ABOUT NAHB: The National Association of Home Builders is a Washington-based trade association representing more than 220,000 members involved in home building, remodeling, multifamily construction, property management, subcontracting, design, housing finance, building product manufacturing and other aspects of residential and light commercial construction. Known as “the voice of the housing industry,” NAHB is affiliated with more than 800 state and local home builders associations around the country. NAHB’s builder members will construct about 80 percent of the more than 1.84 million new housing units projected for 2005, making housing one of the largest engines of economic growth in the country. www.nahb.org