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Show Emergency Home r Repair Project Helps Residents Maintain Homes Consider for a moment the severity of the problem of an elderly retired couple with limited income needing repairs done in their home, for instance, the replacement of faulty plumbing, yet unable to do the work. Consider for a moment the four member family living on a small budget needing a water heater and broken windows replaced, but again unable to raise the required money for the repairs. These situations are not fictitious, they are common place throughout the community. And the Emergency Home Repair project has been designed to assist those individuals with repair problems. The long range, goal of this, project is also worthy of note: "to relieve pressure on the local housing shortage crisis by helping lowmoderate income and elderly residents make emergency repairs, thus allowing more homes to be inhabited until such time that new housing becomes Access to adequate available. lowmoderate income housing is serious in the Salt Lake community and when residents need a home generally the case is that the family needs a place right away. Following are comments from residents assisted through the project making it possible for them to remain in their homes or for the repairing of homes that would provide adequate living environments. Names are withheld by request. A lady said that the stairs in her home were minus a stairway rail and that she had fallen several the raw sewage that had backed up under her home, or face possible loss of her children in accordance with Welfare Department demands placed on her. She said the cost of replacing the sewer system was impossible to meet and that only by receiving the assistance from Emergency Home Repairs was she able to keep her house. The work was completed, she said, and "if it weren't for the project, might not have been able to keep my kids." I One gentleman is blind and was in need of a water heater and adequate bathroom facilities. He said Emergency Home Repairs came into his home, replaced the faulty bathtub and installed a much needed shower. He stated that he could in no way have done the work himself and that the project "answered my problem." "I'm for the project," he said and stated he would fully endorse an increase funding for the project in order to assist anyone else with emergencies in the home. The electrical wiring had never been replaced in. the 35 years a lady said she had lived in her house .Some of the rooms, she continued, didn't have switches for the lights. A washing machine her family had given her for Christmas, she said, couldn't be used because the house had not been equipped with safe and adequate grounding. Project workers completed the needed work, she said. On a limited social security income, she added, the repairs would have been out of the question. more people. Another lady said she was faced with the dilemma having to install an adequate sewer system in the home that would dispose of together After all the rest, Emergency Home Repairs project is contracted with the Salt Lake CityCounty Health Department and is operated by Environmental Health Services in working agreement with ASSIST, Inc. A Citizen's a Advisory Committee was formed consisting of ten members whose function is to review and prioritize applications for repairs. The committee is made up of six resident members (one from each neighborhood council), one Housing Task Force Chairman or delegate, one member from ASSIST, Inc., one member from Environmental Health Services and one member at large from the Housing Task Force. She then hurriedly wiggles down and runs back to her cot to carefully watch him read her message it means a lot, containing only what an almost can write written with broken pen delivered with fright: she slowly walks A CHRISTMAS NOTE Brown child Beautiful, her nearly - five-year-o- -- ld body but a dot in a giant world, now curled, she sleeps at 1:35 on a white cot under a worn blanket, her space in a crowded day-car- e place. December snow and icicles outside, Christmas tree in; she sleeps but doesn 't smile a Christmas sin. But, she can't remember what hasn't been. toward the bearded man and climbs his knee as best she can. Silently, like snow her lips quiver but she doesn't speak. Instead, with giant eyes she penetrates his mind; and with a tiny palm she penetrates his heart handing him a note a now crumpled -- five-year-o- piece of paper personally wrote. -- ld "I live at 4 13 Welsh Street Please don't -- - -- forget again this Christmas night.'' - Jack Stephan Bailey -- Notice! you are in the Model Cities area of Emergency Home Repairs: The program offers to qualified applicants, Emergency Home Repairs such as: roof repairs If plumbing repairs electrical repairs broken glass replacement Suddenly, a loud "Ho Ho Ho" quickens the quiet room - bells start ringing, playmates start screaming, Santa's here so soon? Her brown eyes open and sitting up she rubs sleep out and the day-car- e Christmas in, so abrupt, watching as Santa laughs and playmates laugh; but she doesn't laugh or even move. heating system repairs pest extermination emergency structural repairs The "Emergency Home Repair" program is designed for the and elderly home owners and renters of the model neighborhood. The repair work performed on your dwelling will be done by qualified contractors. No liens will be attached to applicants properties as a result of the repairs. As a model neighborhood resident and applicant you have the option of applying for: low-incom- e Grant - the Emergency Home Repair will pay the contractor 100 of the repair cost. Loan times injuring her hip. To complicate things, she added, the hot water heater in the house was defective and she had to do with little or no hot water. Emergency Home Repair accepted her application and replaced the water heater with a new one and installed a banister on the stairs. "I think they are wonderful," she expressed. "They are doing a great job." The lady indicated that there was no other way that these repairs could have been made and that the program should be expanded to help even it getting She only stares allowing thoughts to roam thinking about last Christmas when he forgot about her home. Now, she watches the man who forgot her. And as playmates sit on his huge knee whispering wants into his ear she sees a blur and feels the fear -- of him forgetting her again. the Emergency Home Repair will pay the contractor 100 of the repair cost, and the applicant will repay, interest free, at monthly payments he or she can afford, the full cost of repairs. - Loan and Grant the Emergency Home Repair will pay the contractor 100 of the repair cost, and the applicant will repay interest free at monthly payments he or she can afford, the agreed percentage of loan. - FOR INFORMATION OR APPLICATIONS, CONTACT: - |