Carpenters volunteer to remodel Veterans Village apartments
Brandon Morris volunteered Saturday with other members of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters union to help remodel housing units for fellow veterans living near downtown Las Vegas.
“I’m in a fortunate position where I have a family, I have a decent life, I can pay my bills. Unfortunately, not everybody can,” said Morris, a Marine Corps veteran and one of the union members helping remodel apartments at Veterans Village, 50 N. 21st St. “Its a good thing not just to give back to the community, but to give back to veterans also.”
The carpenters spent Saturday remodeling 10 apartments at the affordable housing complex run by the Veterans Village nonprofit. The group installed cabinets, sinks, vanities, plumbing and hardware in the apartments, said Frank Hawk, chief operating officer for the union.
It was the fifth time the carpenters have volunteered at the apartment complex, he said.
While other carpenters operated a handsaw outside a second-floor apartment, Hawk said the crew was “trying to make good, quality work, but also good, sanitary conditions.”
While the Crisis Intervention Center facility, which provides resources for those staying at Veterans Village, was built at the site in 2017, the apartment complex itself is an old building with water damage, leaky plumbing and countless layers of paint, Hawk said.
“We don’t even try to fix it; we just go in and replace it with all new stuff,” he said.
Most of the 42 carpenters who volunteered to help on Saturday are also veterans, Hawk said.
“These are the people that built the Raiders’ stadium and are building Resorts World,” he said. “So to come in here and do this after they’ve been working all week, they have to dig deep. But they love doing it.”
Morris, a business representative with the union, said he has volunteered with the group during past projects at Veterans Village. Some of the residents stopped by to chat and ask for help with other odd jobs around their apartments, which Morris said the carpenters were happy to do.
“We’re just trying to help them as we can,” he said.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.
