Midland County Habitat For Humanity Partners to Help With Home Repairs

Kathleen is a U.S. Marine Corp veteran that served during the Vietnam era. Originally hailing from New York City, Kathleen has an outgoing personality and is eager to chat with anyone that she meets. Her favorite past time is tending to her birds, she even has a special bird feeder with a sign that says “Kathy’s Diner”. She is a generous soul and will tell you all about the Midland history she knows.

Kathleen bought her home in Midland in 1971 and has worked cleaning homes for many influential people in Midland. A job she loved due to all the fun events and great people she worked for. Her joy in life is her children and grandchildren and her church. She is very involved with her church and will say a blessing for you after meeting you. When Kathleen needed her home repaired she wasn’t sure where to turn. Her bathroom shower had been inoperable for 9 years. The shower leaked, the floor was soft and she became very resourceful to find alternatives to using her shower. After many attempts to fix the bathroom, she was told Midland County Habitat For Humanity (MCHFH) helps with home repairs. She contacted MCHFH, and met Katty, the Repair Coordinator.

Katty walked her through the process of applying for the home repair service, which is funded by grants from private donations, financial institutions, federal grants, Habitat for Humanity International, and Repair Corp, a veteran service organization. Kathleen qualified for the program, which targets individuals who earn 30% to 60% area median income to help them make critical home repairs for home owners.

Kathleen’s bathroom critical home repair was funded by Repair Corp a partnership with the Home Depot Foundation. Since 2011, The Home Depot Foundation has generously funded critical repairs on the homes of veterans through Habitat for Humanity’s Repair Corps program. This program is open to all military veterans, provided they have received an honorable or general discharge, and is not restricted to any specific veteran groups. The goal of the home repair program is to help individuals make home repairs that center around safety concerns and to improve the longevity of the home to help the home owners age in place and keep the home in safe, stable condition.

The repair process began and when the old shower was removed, it was discovered that the shower had not been draining properly. It was leaking and had damage to the drywall in the neighboring room, and was not draining to the septic tank, it was draining into her crawl space. Several other issues were found including the dryer vent not properly venting outside and her bathroom vanity having draining issues as well. Kathleen’s bathroom was a danger to her health. With additional issues for the critical home repair, the Priority Home Repair grant was also used through MSHDA. With these grants, Kathleen was able to have the necessary repairs to fix the issues found in her bathroom and make it usable again.

Kathleen was so ecstatic about the improvement on her bathroom! When asked what this repair meant to her she said “it is life changing”. She said she prayed to God for help on her bathroom and she feels MCHFH is a God send. The staff and contractors that repaired her bathroom were professional, kind, and courteous. She was concerned about the dust and mess of construction and the contractors were so considerate of her concerns and really cleaned up after themselves. She said they answered her questions and explained the process and took her living circumstances into consideration the entire process of the repair. Kathleen was so happy with the outcome of her repair she kept saying “God bless the contractors, they are the best.”

To date, Repair Corps has served veterans from all service branches. Participating veterans served as far back as World War II. But, there is still much to be done! Join us in helping veterans and their families build strength, stability and independence through shelter.

If you are interested in learning more about the Repair Corp program or the home repair program at MCHFH please go to https://midlandhabitat.org/home-repair/home-repair-request/ or contact Katty Owens at 989-496-0900 or at katty@midlandhabitat.org

As an Equal Housing Lender, We Do Business in Accordance With Federal Fair Lending Laws
UNDER THE FEDERAL FAIR HOUSING ACT, IT IS ILLEGAL, ON THE BASIS OF RACE, COLOR, NATIONAL ORIGIN, RELIGION, SEX, DISABILITY, OR FAMILIAL STATUS (HAVING CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF18) TO:
Deny a loan for the purpose of purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing or maintaining a dwelling, or deny any loan secured by a dwelling; or
Discriminate in fixing the amount, interest rate, duration, application procedures or other terms or conditions of such a loan, or in appraising property