Supporting Housing During Natural Disasters
2020 brought a skyrocketing level of humanitarian need across the world, and Masco’s community outreach in the Housing space saw demand for temporary housing and shelters escalate rapidly. One major cause of this was the continuing rise of natural disasters across the US.
Masco was proud to help fund two critical American Red Cross relief efforts in 2020. The first occurred in Masco’s home state of Michigan when thousands of people had to evacuate their homes in mid-Michigan after spring flooding led to the failure of two dams on the Tittabawassee River. The Red Cross immediately mobilized to provide assistance and utilized temporary emergency lodgings in hotel and motel rooms for people who needed a safe place to stay during COVID-19; in all, they provided 2,515 overnight stays for people with nowhere to go. Red Cross was also able to provide over 4,584 meals, as well as snacks, personal care items, and over 600 cleanup kits.
Later in the year, our Brasstech, Inc. and Behr Paint Company business units donated a combined $100,000 to the American Red Cross of Southern California for wildfire relief. Red Cross disaster workers and volunteers have worked constantly in Southern California for months to keep up with multiple regional evacuations due to the wildfires, arranging emergency lodging and providing hydration and snacks for evacuees. Brasstech had also donated in the early days of COVID-19 to help the American Red Cross of Southern California secure sanitization supplies and additional personal protective equipment for its medical workers and volunteers, ensuring the volunteers were as safe as possible while performing their critical work.
We’re incredibly grateful to the American Red Cross workers in Michigan and California who helped evacuate and shelter thousands of people- including Masco employees, neighbors and family members- during life-threatening situations last year.