Program areas at Home Repair Services of Kent County
Repair and accessibility - the Home Repair Services Repair team completed 1525 health and safety repairs for vulnerable Kent County homeowners. Repairs included: 292 furnace repair/replacements, 171 roof repairs, 106 water heaters, 67 new toilets installed, 460 plumbing calls, & 94 electrical calls. The team also constructed 29 wheelchair access ramps and modified 32 bathrooms for homeowners with reduced mobility due to physical disabilities.
Housing counseling & education - the primary focus of this program continues to be foreclosure prevention, but financial literacy workshops continue to grow as well. Financial coaches conducted 28 one-on-one coaching sessions which resulted in 25 households being spared from a devastating foreclosure. The financial literacy workshops' topics included: debt reduction, spending plan, consumer protection, improving credit, understanding insurance, avoiding scams, reverse mortgages, avoiding identity theft, and cost realities of aging in place. Total attendance for the year was 381 students.
Self-help Home improvements - with the goal of stimulating self-directed Home improvements and repairs, Home Repair Services' instructors taught 84 Home maintenance workshops to 1122 students. The hands-on Repair workshops equipped homeowners to complete do-it-yourself projects in their homes. A total of 29 homeowners successfully completed a diy remodel of their kitchen through the support of the Home Repair Services' remodeling together program. A total of 28 free Home inspections and assessment reports were completed.