GE Partners with HomeAid to Fight Homelessness Across the Country, Including Support for Post-Katrina New Orleans

GE Partners with HomeAid to Fight Homelessness Across the Country, Including Support for Post-Katrina New Orleans

Cash and Product Donation Helps Build Dignified Housing for Thousands of Today's Homeless; Eco-Friendly GE Energy Star Appliances Enable First Post-Katrina LEED-Certified Green Build in New Orleans

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Oct. 16, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- HomeAid, a leading national non-profit provider of housing for today's homeless, announced a new partnership with GE Consumer Industrial, an industry leader in major appliance, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services, through a cash contribution and numerous product donations that support HomeAid's efforts to end homelessness across the U.

S. A key part of GE Consumer Industrial's donations involves providing all of the appliances for HomeAid's New Orleans Family Center, a housing facility for single mothers and their children who are still homeless more than a year after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Located on the site of the historic New Orleans Mission, the 4,400-square-foot Family Center is being built by HomeAid's Gulf Coast Rebuilding Fund in partnership with Ameriquest Mortgage Company and its affiliate Argent Mortgage Company, and AMC Mortgage Services.

Because the Family Center is a sustainable "green" build, the first such facility in post-Katrina New Orleans, GE Consumer Industrial is donating eco-friendly GE Energy Star(tm) appliances that will help enable HomeAid to accommodate the LEED-NC (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design New Construction) Green Building Rating System(tm), a national benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. GE Consumer Industrial's donations for the Family Center further underscore its commitment to the Gulf Coast region and dovetail with the company's recent announcement of a $590,000 donation of equipment, lighting and appliances to hurricane-affected schools in New Orleans. Overall, GE has committed $15 million in cash, equipment and services for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief.

"HomeAid's efforts to end homelessness across the country, especially in the New Orleans area, really captured our imagination and spirit of giving back to the various communities in which we work," said Mark Shirkness, general manager of contract sales for GE Consumer Industrial. "We are proud to help the homeless families and individuals that HomeAid serves get a second chance at life." "In addition to the tremendous support that we are receiving in New Orleans, GE Consumer Industrial is helping with generous donations for our chapters and their builds across the country, including facilities in Atlanta, Sacramento and Southern California," said Genette Eaton, chief executive officer of HomeAid.

"With its long tradition of community-oriented volunteerism, we look forward to deepening our relationship with GE and working with them to create dignified housing where homeless families and individuals can rebuild their lives and attain self-sufficiency." GE Consumer Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliance, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use in more than 100 countries, Consumer Industrial uses innovative technologies to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical protection and control.

GE brings imagination to work, selling products under the Monogram(r), Profile(tm), GE(r), Hotpoint(r), SmartWater(tm), and Reveal(r) consumer brands, and Entellisys(tm) industrial brand.