Life Done Right™

HUD offers up some suggestions on how to help your elderly neighbor. When you’re young, it’s easy to take for granted the ability to see, hear, or even open a can of fruit. Old age, with no warning most of the time, opens the door to broken hips, arthritis, dementia, and a faulty ticker. Hooray for Habitat for Humanity! Now how about a helping hand for those capable of living in their own homes, but may be partially incapacitated or a little short of cash.

• Partner with local skilled trade training programs to get their instructors and students to help with home maintenance training
• Create a home repair ministry by recruiting skilled trade’s people from congregations and other organizations.
• Consider setting up a home repair “business”-people pay a small fee and have access to congregants, retirees and/or partners who will do or help them do minor repairs and landscaping as well as provide advice about common home maintenance tasks.
• Work with contractors or construction companies and suppliers to acquire common home repair tools and supplies. Homeowners who have gone through a home maintenance-training program have the opportunity to “borrow” the tools or buy deeply discounted supplies from your program.
• Partner with retailers who do in-store training and demonstrations on routine home maintenance and tool skills.
• Create a home repair event day or weekend. Volunteers converge on a specific area or home and do home repairs and landscaping to transform a home or a whole block in one day. Often, contractors will offer skilled workers to act as supervisors for untrained volunteers.
• Create a low or no-interest minor home repair revolving loan fund. Owners can borrow small amounts from the fund to help them make code compliance, emergency or other repairs. Community Development Block Grant programs of local governments already have programs for this activity. Many local community development corporations provide this service as well.