Orange County Neighborhood Services and Rebuilding Together Greater Florida partnered with 25 local companies to repair 14 homes in Tildenville, preserving the community’s legacy and providing free renovations for longtime residents.
TILDENVILLE, Fla. —
Orange County Neighborhood Services and Rebuilding Together Greater Florida joined forces with 25 local companies to repair 14 homes in Tildenville, offering free renovations to longtime residents and preserving the community’s legacy.
Anthony Beran, a representative of the partnership, said, “As an organization, [we] will be able to also deliver comprehensive repairs beyond the F.U.N. paint project today.”
The Fixing Up the Neighborhood (F.U.N.) project is designed to give Orange County communities a facelift, and volunteers worked on Friday to make it happen. The initiative promotes pride within the community at no cost to homeowners.
In Tildenville, next door to Winter Garden, the project is life-changing for residents like Sabrina Moss Brown, who has lived in her home for 45 years.
“They’re painting, doing roofing, electrical and plumbing,” Moss Brown said. “I needed [it] desperately. I work, but when you don’t have the funds, you can’t do it.”
By the end of the day, Moss Brown’s gray house will be painted salmon. Looking at the progress, she said, “I love it. A blessing.”
Her home is one of 14 in the neighborhood receiving repairs through the project. All the homes belong to longtime Tildenville residents, making the initiative a way to preserve the community’s legacy.
“We’ve seen tremendous development here in the area of Winter Garden,” Beran said. “So it’s so important that owners who have invested in this community, made it what it is today, get the benefit.”
The project also focuses on preserving affordable housing in Central Florida.
“We want to make sure legacy residents, limited-income families, are able to have a place of their own to call home,” Beran said.
Each renovation costs about $4,000, and the county has been running similar projects for nearly two decades, selecting a different district each year.