H. O. M. E.

Summary of Taking Action

Assessment:
H.O.M.E. representatives met with numerous community organizations to determine if there was a need to assist low income homeowners with home maintenance projects. We met with The Aging and Disabilities Resource Center, ESTHER, The Senior Center, Advocap, Lutheran Social Services, Habitat For Humanity, a local County Board member, The Oshkosh Housing Authority, Salvation Army, The City of Oshkosh Planning Dept and City Inspectors, members from 4 Neighborhood Associations and attended numerous community meetings on poverty. It was determined that there was a substantial unmet need for home maintenance assistance by low-income homeowners not eligible for rehab grants and/or loans.

Planning:
Once an obvious need for our services was determined, we entered The Creating A Stronger Community Contest through the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. After receiving approximately $1500.00 for our first place finish, we began providing our services to a select group of homeowners. All of the stake holders we’d met with originally were asked to help provide additional resources and referrals. At this time, our local Aging and Disability Resource Center has been a primary source of referrals for service. The Senior Center will be a great resource for volunteers, as well as, referrals. Appearances on two community access TV programs have helped to generate awareness.

Taking Action:
Once all those involved had determined there was a real need for our services, the larger group decided to condense the main group into 4 people. These 4 people keep the whole group informed.
The group reached out to the community to find people to set up our website, review our legal papers, provide business cards, develop a project spreadsheet, and provide us accounting services. We also reached out to the community looking for a non-profit to be our fiscal agent. We were able to find people/organizations to provide all the needed services at ZERO cost to us. We were able to create awareness through two local community access TV programs, one with the Senior Center and the other whose primary focus is volunteers. Those programs aired multiple times a week for an entire month, not only on local cable, but to a wider audience with a simulcast on a low frequency FM radio station and will soon be on YouTube. The following are a few examples of work we have performed so far:
Clean out gutters, replace broken or missing window glass, seal a leaky basement, trim tree branches off a roof that were damaging the shingles, replaced light bulbs and smoke alarms, minor drywalling, started a furnace so the lady could have heat in the winter, provided plumbing materials for a disabled man so he could have water, resurfaced a deck for a disabled lady after someone fell through the rotted wood, repaired and replaced door locks and deadbolts, remove pet soiled carpeting from elderly disabled couples living room, fill holes in exterior siding, spray for wasps and bees, landscaping, weatherstripping and the list goes on.
Please note that all the work that has been done to date has been done by volunteers. Also note, we ask the homeowner to pay what they can. 100% of the money given to us by the homeowner goes directly back into the program to help others.

Evaluation:
We continue to evaluate what we may be able to do to improve upon on efforts and provide more services to this group of homeowners who are not receiving assistance from other agencies but strive to stay in their homes.
The vast majority of the homeowners we assist live in older homes with outdated plumbing and electrical service, poor roofs and siding in need of repair.
In order for us to be able to assist with these types of projects we need to be able to hire licensed professionals to complete the work. Until we are able to secure more funding to tackle these larger projects, we will continue to provide our services and ask homeowners to pay what they can afford.
Example of our efforts having an impact are a disabled man having water after they called us, a disabled lady having heat after she called us, a disabled lady being able to walk out of her house onto her newly surfaced deck after she called us, a disabled couple saying they could breath better after the soiled carpet was removed and a women who told us she is considering staying in her house instead of moving.
We believe there will always be a need for a program such as H.O.M.E. We have had plenty of work with minimal advertising. We also believe we need funds to sustain the program into the distant future. There are ways we are looking at raising funds including grants and donations.

Sustaining the Work:
We continue to evaluate what we may be able to do to improve upon on efforts and provide more services to this group of homeowners who are not receiving assistance from other agencies but strive to stay in their homes.
The vast majority of the homeowners we assist live in older homes that have outdated plumbing and electrical, poor roofs and siding in need of repair.
In order for us to be able to assist with these types of projects we need to be able to hire licensed professionals to complete jobs such as plumbing and electrical. Until we are able to secure more funding to tackle these larger projects, we will continue to provide our services for smaller jobs and ask homeowners to pay what they can afford.
There will always be a need for a program such as H.O.M.E. We have been inundated work with minimal advertising. Both volunteers and funds are necessary to sustain the program into the distant future. We are exploring including grants, donations, community partnerships, etc.