My name is Gina Centauro, and I run a charity called Rescuing Families with my husband Vinny, and my brother Michael.

We rebuild homes for families in need to make them safe and handicapped accessible.

VINNY: Our charity helps underprivileged families get back in their homes and live like normal human beings again.

That's the main goal of our charity.

MICHAEL: Because everybody deserves to live in a home thats safe, comfortable and functional for their needs.

We don't want these people to feel forgotten.

We want them to know that there are people that want to help them have a better life.

That's how it's done, folks.

(theme plays) We are here today with our charity, Rescuing Families.

And we are here to renovate the home of Claire Helfenbein VINNY: We're here today to get the process started We're meeting Claire today.

We're going to, you know, get these renovations underway in a few days.

But we're just going through the house, scouting it out.

What we need to do as far as renovations, improvements, to make this home totally handicap accessible for Claire.

So she has a living space that she can use again and it's functional and safe, which is most important for us.

Obviously we we got shut down.

- I know.

- We had a barbecue for you, How long ago was that?

- I know - It'll be two years in August.

- Can you believe it?

We were ready then- I know and then we got shut down with Covid.

I know you've been through a lot in your past.

In 2012, my husband passed away because he was really ill.

He had cancer.

It was just me and my two little ones, and it was challenging.

It was challenging.

And even before he got sick, the plans were to little by little, make the house more wheelchair friendly and more accessible And it was a different life once he passed, you know Dealing with Jake and his autism, it was just I- I didnt We didnt know what to do.

And it was just such a a bad time for Jake and Megan.

The age that she was.

She was 14.

And and so trying to do the repairs on the house, that was something that was like a dream now.

You know, I don't even talk about my disability because it's like, it's it's like secondary to me, you know, even though it's been a birth defect, Its been something that I've lived with I just never let it take my life over.

I just used this as more motivation.

you know, there were things, after Irving passed, I realized this is hard.

And then the house was literally such a big deal.

I'm like, how are we ever going to get the repairs done?

A lot of the families think we're a business or we're some big company that does this.

We're just - Its us Its just us.

- I know Its everybody here.

Roger, Michael, Gina and I, it's just us doing this.

We're just a regular family.

So, when we hear stories like yours, it really touches our heart Because this is some of the same stories that our own family have gone through.

There's so much exterior issues going on at this home.

We have to tackle that first before we can even do any interior projects.

As you can see, the roof has plenty of leaks inside the house.

So that's going to be one of our top priorities in changing is this roof One of the other big issues for the exterior of this home is the deck.

This deck is about 50 years old, they built a ramp, and it's going actually directing water into the house.

So the plan here is for us is to actually remove this whole deck and give her a low profile deck So Claire's kitchen.

What are we going to do here, Gina?

Well, want me to tell you what we're not going to do?

We're not going to be saving the upper cabinets - Or the lowers.

We wanted to try to do that, but it's just not feasible.

Claire is getting a brand new kitchen and cutting this entire thing.

- This is the footprint we got to work with.

And that's somewhat of a challenge, but there are some benefits of this kitchen, as we see right now.

The countertops and the, the cabinets are - The height We have to make sure that we take proper measurements and make sure that that works, because that was the one thing she said was ideal for her, was the countertop height.

So this is very functional for Claire right now, the way it is right now.

But we're going to upgrade it.

So we're going to give her new cabinets.

- Yeah - New countertops.

This is Claire's laundry closet.

Because this is not a laundry room.

This is very hard for someone even of my stature, to work in here to do laundry But imagine Claire with a wheelchair.

We're looking to open up this wall and take the washer and dryer off of one another and place one and one and give her a proper station to do her laundry and fold and everything.

Almost like a folding table on top to make it easier for her.

The one major thing that we're going to have to do with this space is there is an electric box trapped behind this refrigerator that I can't even get to.

So again, imagine Claire in a wheelchair trying to get to this electric box.

There are two main issues in Jake's room.

One being the fact that Jake has something called Pica, which is eating things that should not be ingested, such as paint.

So you will see by his bed side that Jake, in his boredom, will tear the paint and eat it.

Maybe paint that back wall, make it a focal wall with something, and then maybe just do the paneling on just the, you know, two walls or three walls.

Megan's room, as you can see, is a closet.

It's a very very tiny space.

- I think it's like ten by six.

- It's meant more to be a nursery than it is for an adult's bedroom, and she's an adult.

So Claire's bathroom.

What do we have to say about Claire's bathroom?

Claire's bathroom is not good, that's what we're going to say.

- Yeah, its not - This is probably one of the smallest bathrooms that we're going to try to- that we've made handicap accessible.

This is gone.

That's gone.

I want to say everything in here is gutted.

Everything, again a full gut.

And sadly we can't make this one bigger either.

Ah ha, or can we?

We might be able to We're not going to give that away just yet.

We are working on the plan for this.

We've been arguing here and there about it.

I need to make this bathroom bigger for her.

We have this steel tub here, which, you've seen it, she's shown us she can not get in here anymore.

She's really running the risk of really injuring herself.

Were going to do a handicap accessible roll-in shower No curb.

- Yep.

Make this room 100% waterproof.

We are going to just- Roger, if you can just remove the doors for me.

We'll get rid of those.

One of the last things that we're going to get moving on here is getting rid of this vanity.

So the same process like you did with the toilet bowl, make sure the water lines are off first.

(Drill sounds) Demo, as you can see, it moves very quickly doing demo.

So at this time we're removing all the walls.

Because right now the walls are locking the tub in And we can't remove the top until these walls are down.

And as you can see, they had old grab bars from further back and they never filled the holes up.

So they've been showering and water has probably been getting in those holes and rotting out the studs.

The walls are not on very well, very loose with all the tiles.

We'll start here with this It doesnt take much at all.

From the water damage.

Again, this is another reason you don't want to put wood inside an interior of a shower.

That's one of the main reasons, obviously, use the sheathing on the outside for you.

- Yep.

- Yep, there you go.

Just try to use the tool to your advantage Dig down deep.

(window clatters) And work your way down, yep.

Apparently it looks more of like a steel tub.

And that ain't going to break hitting it with a sledgehammer.

That's even going to have to come out in a full.

Or we'd have to cut it.

Now this is a - Laminate.

This is a laminate floor here.

You could tell if you look at it here how thick it is right now and how it's just falling apart.

This should not be happening.

There's just so much water underneath this floor that it's.

It's just swelling the composites of this board.

Claire actually said there would be pools of water in here on a heavy rain, inside the house.

So let's see what we're going to find here G.

- Go for it!

This has been one of the areas of the house that's been very concerning to us.

- That's a mess.

Thats a mess.

This is- look at how it's coming up You could just see what water has been doing.

Again, this is partly due to the door being improperly installed.

you hope this was on a slab, which now, it doesnt even seem to be on a slab, It seems as almost they ran their lumber directly on the dirt.

We can tell right away - Is that rotted too?

If this doesnt hit any cement This is - Oh my goodness.

This is all just dirt here.

The only thing keeping Claire from going through the floor was the laminate flooring.

And as you can see, that's only about 3/8 inch thick.

So hopefully in our eyes, we're hoping that this doesn't continue on, this rot.

But it makes sense, the door ends here.

You would anticipate rot to be right here from the water coming in.

At least now you can go from the tub side to get underneath the floor.

It might be easier to get it out - The only issue I did find in here, we thought the plumbing for the sink was going to be through the wall.

- Oh, no.

It's actually through the floor Oh, no.

So when we have to remove all of that plumbing now, for the sink, Were relocating it a lot further away than where it is right now.

So that pipe, - Can we run it through the wall now instead of through the floor, or thats going to be a challenge?

- Thats gonna have- We're gonna have to jackhammer it up either way right?

They had so many other obstacles here with the waistline.

So the main line, it doesn't seem to be that way.

So I know were moving the toilet.

- Yeah Which moves the vanity in the closet - A little bit.

A little bit, so, Yeah, we're going to have some work here So right now, I am in the process of getting ready to take up this floor.

It's the living room dining room area.

It's not going to take much to take this floor up because it's all popping up anyway.

The reason it's popping up is because it's laid directly on to a concrete slab.

Wood and concrete don't mix without a barrier between it.

The water will naturally come up through the concrete because it's porous, the moisture and will pop the glue.

And over time, that's exactly what happened here.

As Claire rolled over it, it also assisted in loosening up a lot of the parquet floor here.

We are going to prevent that from happening by using vinyl plank flooring and an underlayment on this slab that will be able to take the moisture.

It's a moisture resistant and waterproof floor.

So that's what I'm doing right now.

I'm going to start cutting up, scoring this baseboard.

Getting that off to make it easier to get the floor up.

Alright, at this point, what we have done here, we have leveled off Jake's floor right here.

That was the first step we did.

We leveled the dirt off.

After that, we installed this plastic.

What this plastic is this is a vapor barrier.

This is going to prevent moisture coming up through the floor.

After our vapor barrier is down, we installed the steel wire here.

What that steel wire is going to do is going to strengthen the concrete.

We're doing about a five inch slab here.

So this is sitting on This wire is sitting on 2-inch cups.

So that's keeping the mesh elevated so our cement can get underneath it and really give it strength It's been extremely cold in New York.

- Yeah.

And what happens?

I mean Our boiler totally shot.

What happened the other day?

You were- I was sitting basically in the kitchen area doing work on the computer, and the loudest clanging I've ever heard.

And we have a steam boiler at home.

We know how loud that can be.

And I said “Oh my God” And then all of a sudden, water everywhere from the bottom underneath the boiler, which is never a good thing.

That means that it's cracked underneath and that it's gone.

It's somewhat ironic because I had a few days prior said to Vinny This- this is not going to last for Claire.

She might get through the summer with it.

Obviously, you didn't really need to use it much at all.

And then she would go to turn it on in the winter and it would have it would have been dead.

It would have died on her eventually.

So this is a much broader problem than we even realize.

You have families that are maybe middle to lower income, that don't recognize that their burner is is in bad shape or it's older and they're just praying that it's going to hang on for one more winter.

It's so incredibly important to discuss uncomfortable truths.

In regards to the disabled, the elderly, people that are lower income, that can't afford things, in their own home.

So as uncomfortable as it is, it needs to be seen, it needs to be shown, and people need to start noticing, that there are people right next door to them struggling.

It's truly heartbreaking to see this go on with so many families and and the disabled community that are faced with these issues which have even a less of a voice than, say, you and I right now.

- Because its, for them, It's literally a matter of life and death.

in a case like this.

and it breaks my heart to see the Tribble family and Claire.

- Yeah And the kids, what would they have done?

This could have caused a gas leak.

It's just horrifying to me to know that there are families like this all over the country that are suffering silently and nobody notices.

Yeah, and they're just barely being able to put food on the table.

So for them, heat it's really second to them in a sense But It really should be the most important thing because they can't survive without that.

Especially not in these cold climates.

To think about what might have happened had we not come here Had she had not gotten help with her home?

How was she going to afford to get this work done?

At what point would it become so unsafe that they would have to vacate the home?

I don't think she knew how bad it was.

So what you see here is years and years of rot.

This rot occurred because, first of all, this structure was not built correctly.

Second of all, there was no gutter back here.

This roof is pitched back this way, and there was no gutter.

So the water was just running down under the siding, This is the insulation in Jake's room.

And on the other side of that is the sheetrock.

So this room is completely exposed to the elements right now.

We're going to take care of this like we did the other side.

This is what we've been seeing on the entire house.

Oh my God.

Between that and all your water issues, your house was crumbling underneath you, and you didn't know it You didn't know it.

Guys could you imagine if I didnt get you guys to do this?

I don't know what would happen, I would have no house.

- I know, you were, it would have been in bad shape.

and I'm not just saying that Claire, it was very bad, very bad for all of us.

And we and we're in the business.

And this is probably the worst I've ever seen.

Even doing people's homes this is the worst.

The sad thing is, from that time to now, we really didn't have the means to look into it and try to figure out what was going on and, you know, redo some of the things that were falling.

Like, I mean, you know, that little therapy room Vinny, with all of that water under the doors That's been an issue for like the longest time.

And you know, what what could you have done?

You know, so- - That wouldve been a major issue - It would have been a major - A major, major issue I'm going to be honest and then, I'm not going to go into what we saw there.

But I'm going to tell you that it was upsetting enough to me to know that your house wouldve been condemned, because it wouldn't have held up much longer.

- Really?

It wouldve been really bad, because what would you have done financially?

What would you have done?

- Because that kitchen, that leak in the kitchen that has been there for years.

And he was putting a Band-Aid on a big problem.

- Yeah.

- So I knew it.

I knew the house had issues, little things that I saw, like in that area with the washer and the dryer in that corner up there, with all the sheetrock that was coming down - Yeah.

- Every time it rained or snowed the water was coming down and Irving knew that too.

And once again he would say “we'll get to it”.

So these things were happening for a while.

We were expecting to find something, but (exclaims) This is a lot.

First off, just by looking at the lumber, this isn't structurally sound at all.

I mean, clearly we can see the rot here from the lack of ventilation that we first noted - The critters, the infestation and the water damage.

That's nothing.

Look at these joist hangers up here.

They cut them Which you never, ever do.

We're going to have to sister up these two by fours with two by sixes and pop them in the joist hangers that way.

It's resting in here.

It's secured and we can get it into the ledger board and get rid of that.

With this new roof system that Claires gonna have, she's gonna have 25 plus 30 years probably, of maintenance free, no leaking, most importantly.

- Yeah, so the older roofs, back then, they didnt use a product called Ice and Water shield.

Ice and Water shield will definitely give her peace of mind.

Listen, we're in the northeast.

We got a lot of snow, a lot of inclement weather.

And with that come ice dams.

And ice dams will basically force water into your house.

And she doesn't ever have to worry about that again.

One of the worst things we can find, as roofing contractors, underneath the roof, is the plywood being the wrong direction.

It's a huge problem because what can happen is the plywood can buckle.

And then you have these dips in the roof that look horrible.

This plywood has a Its placed in the roof up and down.

instead of across the roof.

And so it's eight foot up and down, and when you stand in that center piece, you can actually hear it crack a little bit.

and it's because of the way that the wood has, has the grain going.

So we want to cross grain the framing.

So we want to turn it horizontally and go across the roof left to right, At this point we used the router We cut our sheathing.

Now were going to bring the tile back into the house and staple it Thatll be one of the first steps of many to go on this project, for the window install So what we're doing right now is we're going to be installing the rubber membrane Again, this is just another waterproofing measure here.

Just to ensure that we don't have the same issues that Claire had before with all the rotting of the interior of the walls So this is just another measure thatll ensure that doesnt happen again.

You work that corner, I'll work this corner.

Considering she She had a wooden window in this spot before that was so rotted Even if you did all the proper steps that we're doing now, it was still rotted from the inside, in the shower area - Correct.

It was just a bad move.

So you will see in the bathroom so far, there's a bunch of two by six lumber all around We put that in there for the grab bars.

So when we screw the grab bars into the wall after it's tiled, we hit structure.

And we're not just within a cavity here.

When we drill the grab bars in, after we tile the wall, it'll be drilled into structure, not into a cavity.

So what we're going to do is we're going to install these two by sixes all around the bathroom in the spots where we're going to put the grab bar, and then we have no issue.

Theyre about 36 inches up.

We know they're there.

And after the tile is up we just measure and we zip the grab bars into the wall.

They have another box in the back by the garage.

They jumped to give power to the back end of the house, because that was an addition, from the main box, and they did not do it correctly at all.

HENRY: The bathroom now has its own circuit.

- Yeah.

We have- the lights have its own circuit on its own now.

- Yup.

You know, we did the switches and everything low, so, theyre handicapped accessible, right?

- Which is great.

As far as this room, we could just cut everything out, leave the wires hanging, run our switch legs.

and then we said we might give her like, a control switch.

- Yes.

And we'll definitely have it, because now they donated all of it, so we don't have to worry about it now.

- Great.

They had a bunch of wires tied in together They weren't in boxes.

They weren't safe.

So we're going to we're going to take everything apart.

We're going to make it- We're going to box everything up, make it accessible so we can get to them if we ever have issues.

Well, the windows are now in.

Yes.

You're right.

The windows are in.

We only have a few more to go, which is awesome.

Which is great.

We have the house wrap on.

It's insulated.

So the next step is siding.

I think at the end of this day, we are going to this house is going to look transformed the best it's ever looked at.

I mean, between the siding, the stone going on today.

Yup.

The only thing about the front I'm a little disappointed with.

- What can that be?

- We didn't get the door yet.

The door, it was supposed to come today.

- Yeah, - and that was going to happen.

It did not happen.

The door's coming tomorrow, so we got to install it tomorrow - Tomorrow we'll install the new door.

And then youll really see the change, yeah Now if you end up having a window, let's say here and here, the centerpiece If you can't get enough flex on it.

You do Plinkos.

You ever play Plinkos?

- Im old - Like, The Price Is Right ?

- Nail it to hold it in place.

Do another one.

Do another one.

Do another one.

Then when you're ready, you shove those up.

You nail the first one.

Drop it down, nail it, drop it down, nail it.

That's part of construction- - You know what?

Take the screws out.

- Yeah - Take them out, Put the cylinder in, and then we'll- - Yeah, you screwing me up here.

Thank you, Assistant - No problem.

(Gina laughs) I'm not used to this role.

- Get used to it.

(Laughs) She's going to love this.

You can, go ahead.

So wait.

The great thing about this, We used this for the Mauros as well because Keith didn't have use of his hand.

So you can pull you can push or you can rotate like a normal handle.

It doesn't require much effort.

The fact that you can do it 7 million different ways, you know, bumping it even, This particular product is just really revolutionary for the disabled community, and they didn't even realize it until we brought it to their attention.

REPORTER: Long Island volunteers are just heartbroken tonight, unable to complete a charitable effort.

- For months, they've been renovating a disabled womans Hempstead home But someone broke in last night and stole their tools.

- My first thing was, Oh my God we have to let Claire know.

Which was devastating.

Like, we're trying to keep her out of every aspect of what's going on.

We were I think we were just at that point floundering, like, how the heck are we going to do this?

- The people that took everything are just prolonging Claire from coming home again.

I think that's the biggest thing that affected us.

And how are we going to get the tools that we need to be able to finish this project?