Safe Home Illinois, the Joseph Corporation and School District 131 and their partners are working together to build the first inhabited Fortified® home in the state of Illinois, in the city of Aurora. The Institute for Business and Home Safety's Fortified...for safer living® program specifies construction, design and landscaping guidelines to increase a new home's resistance to natural disasters from the ground up. This is done by adding protection to windows and doors, providing better connections between the roof, walls and foundation, and installing a thicker, stronger roof that is designed to stay drier and resist hail damage.
Student Construction
High school students from East Aurora, Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley High Schools will build, with professional and union support, the fully handicap-accessible, single family home. Once completed, the house will be sold to a qualified family having accessibility needs with financial and home ownership counseling provided by the Joseph Corporation.
Fortified® Specifications
Fortified...for safer living® is a national new-home construction designation granted by the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), a national nonprofit initiative of the insurance industry based in Tampa. The inspection-based program features affordable construction options designed to help better safeguard homes from the ground-up against the natural hazards they face, as well as other causes of property loss. Depending on location, this could include added protection from high wind, flood, earthquake, freezing weather, hail and wildfire.
Simulated Tornado and Hurricane
Simulated Tornado and Hurricane flying debris is created with a wind cannon to test four differently constructed wall panels. Demonstrates the strength and safety of precast concrete walls that was demonstrated at the Aurora Fortified Project Ground Breaking Ceremony:
Interested in Owning Our Fortified Home?
Would you like to own a home that is not only handicap-accessible, but can also withstand an F-4 tornado, an earthquake, a hail storm and resist flooding? If so, the Joseph Corporation is looking for you! JoCo is currently accepting applications for potential homeownership of our handicap-accessible, Fortified home. Please visit the contact page for more information.
Student Summer Break and Fortified Open house: June-August, 2007
Home Closing and Family Move-In Ceremony: October, 2007
Safe Home Illinois
Safe Home Illinois is a state-wide wind damage mitigation program of the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Our aim is to educate government and industry professionals and the general public on various aspects of mitigating the damage caused by the destructive forces of high-wind events such as tornadoes and wind storms.
Joseph Corporation
The Joseph Corporation is a community-based nonprofit established in 1991 to address affordable housing through homeownership. Over the years, Joseph Corporation has grown to focus on homeownership, lending and real estate development through their mission: empowering individuals, stabilizing families and revitalizing neighborhoods.
Business & Home Safety (IBHS), a national nonprofit initiative of the insurance industry based in Tampa. The inspection-based program features affordable construction options designed to help better safeguard homes from the ground-up against the natural hazards they face, as well as other causes of property loss. Depending on location, this could include added protection from high wind, flood, earthquake, freezing weather, hail and wildfire. 
Joseph Corporation