More than a dozen elderly homeowners in Dayton’s Westwood neighborhood have been selected by the nonprofit Rebuilding Together Dayton to receive home repairs for free. The event in west Dayton, Saturday April 29, is part of a nationwide annual event made possible by about 100,000 volunteers across the country.
Rebuilding Together Dayton’s Amy Radachi says the goal of the repair program is to help elderly homeowners remain independent, and avoid moving to expensive assisted-living facilities. She says many of the homeowners chosen for repairs are longtime, stable residents.
“There are a lot of elderly homeowners who have been in their homes an average of 30 to 40 years. They’re on a fixed income and they can’t afford to make repairs that will allow them to stay there, so we’re happy to go in and do what we can to make them safer,” she says.
Rebuilding Together Dayton last year provided free plumbing, painting, yard work, electrical and other repairs to more than more than 200 homeowners in 130 homes last year.
Elderly Westwood homeowner Dorothy Thompson was one of them. She supports her disabled daughter on a low, fixed income. Her home was in desperate need of repairs, but with little financial support, Thompson felt stuck.
She says the repairs she received from Rebuilding Together Dayton volunteers were a big help in fixing things she couldn’t afford to take care of herself.
“The young people that they selected from different schools and the like, they were so polite and so generous. They were eager, saying, ‘what do I do next,' and I appreciated all of it,” she says.
For more information about Rebuilding Together Dayton, click here.
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