A safe home is the foundation for nearly every other kind of progress, notes Americans Helping Americans® executive director Cameron Krizek.
“Yet many low-income homeowners in Appalachia remain in houses with failing roofs, unsafe wiring, inadequate plumbing, damaged floors or inaccessible entrances,” says Cameron.
In the past year, thanks to the supporters of Americans Helping Americans®, we were able to provide $58,000 in home rehabilitation grants to four Appalachian partners. These grants benefited 172 individuals through Appalachian Ministries of the Smokies (AMOS) in Jefferson City, Tennessee; Big Creek People in Action (BCPIA) in McDowell County, West Virginia; Cumberland Mountain Outreach (CMO) in Beattyville, Kentucky; and Ocoee Outreach (OO) in Cleveland, Tennessee.
In McDowell County, BCPIA executive director Dyanne Spriggs learned about a dire situation facing Jerry Lockhart and his wife, both of whom have disabilities and difficulty walking. BCPIA's home rehabilitation staff had stopped by their home in the small, unincorporated community of Newhall to find out why a project to replace their deteriorating siding had not been completed.
Dyanne said they learned that the Lockharts’ unfinished siding was not their most urgent problem.
For the past three years, only a few of the electrical circuit breakers in the home worked and Jerry had to unplug one item to use electricity somewhere else, Dyanne told Cameron, adding that the couple could not even operate their stove or refrigerator.
This meant they had to travel to a grocery store every few days for food and ice to keep perishables in coolers.
“As you can imagine, these extra trips and supplies added additional financial strain,” commented Cameron.
Dyanne described the situation as dangerous enough to put the home at risk of fire.
So BCPIA put the siding job on hold until a local electrician could be contracted to complete a full 200-amp service upgrade, including a new interior service panel, meter-base disconnect, grounding conduit, service cable, and whole-home surge protector.
When the job was completed, the local electrical utility company was called to inspect the work. The work passed inspection, and full power was restored to the Lockharts’ home.
Jerry’s wife shed tears of joy when she learned that the completed project would give them enough electricity to be able to cook on their stove and keep the food cold in their refrigerator, Dyanne reported.
“We could not have done that without the extra funding we get from Americans Helping Americans® for housing rehab,” Dyanne commented.
In Beattyville and throughout Lee County, CMO pairs its cash grant support from Americans Helping Americans® with volunteer church teams that travel from other states and contribute their labor and additional fundraising.
This summer, CMO received 15 applications and scheduled three church teams: one from Plymouth, Indiana, nearly 400 miles away, and two from as far as the Chicago area, more than 400 miles away
Cameron explained that grant support from Americans Helping Americans® “is assigned to each selected family to help subsidize materials, allowing volunteer teams to accept larger or more complex projects than their own fundraising might otherwise permit.”
AMOS also used the same combination of grant funding and volunteer labor in Jefferson and surrounding counties in Tennessee.
And in Cleveland, Tennessee, OO executive director Callie Lindberg told us, “Because of the partnership of Americans Helping Americans®, Ocoee Outreach was able to assist multiple families with home repairs!
“Many of these were senior citizens and/or widows who struggle with physical disabilities and otherwise would not be able to complete these projects.”
Looking forward to 2027, Cameron has budgeted $55,000 to continue providing home rehab grants to our program partners to purchase lumber and supplies for their community work groups to repair the homes of the vulnerable.
Among them again is BCPIA in distressed McDowell County where 67 percent of the houses in the county were constructed before 1940, with half of them rated “below normal” quality levels, resulting in the county having the lowest home values in the state, reported Cameron.
Across all four partners, home rehabilitation projects over the past year included repairs to roofs, porches, ramps, floors, plumbing, and electrical systems.
“These repairs allow older adults, people with disabilities, and families with limited incomes to remain safely in their homes rather than continue living with a hazard they cannot afford to correct,” says Cameron.
“Home rehabilitation grants create a strong multiplier because partners contribute local project knowledge, volunteer labor, donated materials, contractor relationships, and supervision.
“Americans Helping Americans® dollars do more than purchase supplies: they activate a community response around a household that might otherwise have nowhere to turn.”
