Programs to Assist Low Income Families with Home Repairs

I need assistance with extensive home repairs. Can you direct me to the right people or programs?

By james manning from Long Beach, CA

Answers:

Programs to Assist Low Income Families with Home Repairs

The only programs that I am aware of depend on being quite low income, elderly, or disabled. Where I live the home-builders association voluntarily go around to previously selected homes every spring and do some repairs. I don't how many repairs they do on any one home.

I have a sister who was telling me everything that she is having done to their house in the line of repairs, and she said they hadn't done anything to it other than new carpeting and vinyl and paint in the 30 years since it had been built. I bit my tongue to keep from being snotty and wondered why they didn't make yearly repairs because they could have afforded to do that.

I would call the Department of Social Services and see what programs they have and see if you qualify for them. The programs that I am aware of have different names in different states, but they are government funded programs and run out of money quickly. And like I said at the beginning, there are restrictions if you are looking for free work.

I know somebody that had $10,000 worth of work done on her house here in SD, but her taxes also went up considerably after the work was done, because some of the work that was done besides being a repair, also improved the looks and value of her house. Needless to say, she wasn't real happy about that.

There are all kinds of things to consider for stuff like that. Sometimes it might be better to do a little repair work as you can afford to do it. All of these reasons are why I am glad I rent a decent apartment, I don't have to worry about repairs, and the apartment complex is really well kept up. (09/28/2010)

By Joan

Programs to Assist Low Income Families with Home Repairs

I volunteer for a national organization called Love INC. Here's a link to their website with locations in California. Hope there is one near you. We specialize in helping with all sorts of needs, including lots of home repairs. I've done roof work, screen repair, plumbing, etc. And if there isn't one near you, I'd call them anyway because they may know exactly the right place to get you some help.

http://www.loveinc.org/our-work/locations/ (09/30/2010)

By Lee Taylor