Boston Seniors: Need Help With Home Repairs? Contact “The Collaborative”

You take care of yourself with regular visits to your doctor. You take your medications as directed, and you try to watch what you eat and exercise as you can.  Taking care of yourself is a lot of work… shouldn’t your home receive the same level of care, for safety’s sake?Putting off or ignoring needed household repairs can put your health at risk. But if the cost of such repairs has been out of your reach, or you simply haven’t known who to call for help, now, there is an answer.

The Greater Boston Senior Home Repair Collaborative (known as “The Collaborative”), is a new organization that can help! Formed by four Boston-based non-profits, the work performed by The Collaborative is funded by a grant from AARP Foundation. The four member organizations include the Neighborhood of Affordable Housing, Inc. (NOAH); Kit Clark Senior Services/Bay Cove; the Ecumenical Social Action Committee (ESAC); and United South End Settlements (USES). These agencies have extensive, long-term experience implementing safety-related repairs and improvements for seniors. These organizations also serve as partner agencies with the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development Senior Home Repair program.

Because our housing stock in Boston is among some of the oldest in the country, maintenance and repair are ongoing issues that require continual attention. That, coupled with older homeowners who lack disposable income, means some properties are in need of numerous repairs.

Check the following list of repairs against what’s needed in your home or the home of an elderly friend or relative; all of these are covered by The Collaborative:

• installing grab bars and handrails
• repairing and replacing broken toilets and faucets
• unclogging drains
• repairing exterior and interior stairs
• installing doorbells for hard-of-hearing clients
• repairing and replacing exterior door locks
• repairing broken windows
• making safety-related floor repairs
• repairing and cleaning gutters that are causing leaks

 

The Collaborative’s safety repair services are free for the lowest-income clients, or homeowners earning at or under $19,850 per year, with a sliding-scale “fee-for-service” payment model for homeowners with higher incomes. Work performed for higher-income clients, while reasonably priced, is scaled upwards depending upon the household’s ability to pay, and helps fund work for those less fortunate.

Repair work is performed by each agency’s highly trained and skilled staff and/or fully-licensed and insured private contractors, depending on the situation.  For those in higher income brackets, the Collaborative’s sliding fee affords them the opportunity to access experienced, licensed, and insured contractors to perform needed work. The agency serves as their “project manager.”

The Collaborative assists homeowners 50+ from all Boston neighborhoods, including: Dorchester, South Boston, Charlestown, East Boston, the North End, the West End, Back Bay, Fenway, Roxbury, the South End, Allston-Brighton, Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale, and West Roxbury.  Homeowners in the following communities can also be served:  Winthrop, Revere, Chelsea, Quincy, Milton, Dedham, and Brookline.

Find your city/town below, then click on the agency serving your community:

NOAH  (Neighborhood Affordable Housing) serves Charlestown, East Boston, and the North and West Ends of Boston.

ESAC (Ecumenical Social Action Committee) ESAC serves Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Roslindale, West Roxbury, Allston, Brighton, Mattapan, Dedham, Brookline, and Newton.

Kit Clark Senior Services/Bay Cove serves areas of Dorchester and Roxbury as well as South Boston, Quincy, and Milton.

USES (United South End Settlements) serves areas of Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan.

To learn more, visit  The Collaborative website.