Toughest Project In Awhile

UPDATE: We have a volunteer who is going to be able to get the roofs patched to stop the water. We’re still needing a plumber who can fix the plumbing. Contact us!

I visited one of the most overwhelming projects I’ve visited in the 3 years I’ve been at NeighborLink. Practically speaking, this house needs a bull dozer, a fire, or some explosives. No one should be living in this house, but someone does and someone we want to consider helping. I wish I could give you his name, but I don’t want to jeopardize his living situation because it’s all he has and all he can afford. 

     

This is a picture of one of the leaks he has in his roof. This leak is going through the roof, through the upstairs, and through this floor into the basement. You can imagine what the rest of his house looks like. 

I was contacted by the VA Hospital a few weeks ago about this guy. They have been working with him for a long time and have made some significant strides towards bettering this his life situation in the past couple months. He’s got a host of muscular disabilities, was just diagnosed with lung cancer, and has a number of other ailments. He’s in pretty bad shape, but through the VA’s help, has become debt free and is living within a workable budget and seems to be living sustainably. With everything except his house. 

His house currently does not have a furnace, it has leaky plumbing, and two flat roofs with bad leaks as you can see above. Then there are a whole host of basic maintenance issues that need done, but are small compared to these problems. 

It’s hard to comprehend a living situation like this. Our personal instincts immediately tell us that no one should live like this, and our professional instincts immediately begin thinking of ways to find a better place to live. Although those solutions may be the practical and right thing to do, it doesn’t take into factor what they want. What they want is truly what matter here. 

For this guy, he’s perfectly content and comfortable living in the home he owns debt free. He only has a little over $700 a month in income and that doesn’t go very far. He told me that he takes 23 pills of medication a day and it totals in the range of $4,000 a month (Fortunately he doesn’t have to pay for all of that).  

He also has three dogs that are his family and there is no way he wants to give them up, which he would have to in an apartment setting. I don’t blame him because he hardly gets human interaction because no one visits him. Mans best friend is really the case here. 

This is a hard project, but one that holds tremendous opportunity to literally change this guys outlook on life. All he wants is to have the leaks stop and to live a little more comfortably. Unfortunately that is not as easy as it sounds because of the projects involved. We have to be sensitive to his living situation and be able to abide by the building codes necessary. I’m really at a loss at how to help him at this point. 

      

Here is an outside pic of the one roof that needs fixed. The other part is that flat part up to the left. 

Here’s What I Need:

1. People to pray for this guy and for the help only God can provide.

2. Roofer who can come up with a creative fix on these roofs. 

3. Plumber who can fix/replaced sections of copper plumbing in a damp, dingy basement. 

If you can volunteer to play one of these roles, please email me.