Rapidan Better Housing a friend to those in need

Running a household and raising children is hard enough without added adversity of health problems. And plans to spend retirement years in one's own house on a limited income don't always include the means for handicapped accessibility and safety. But local not-for-profit organization Rapidan Better Housing can make life a little easier for low-income families, the elderly and disabled county residents who can't afford to repair their homes.
Rapidan Better Housing's help is available to households in Rappahannock, Culpeper and Madison, but the bulk of services the organization provides aid Orange County's qualifying families. Those projects are carried out through Rapidan Better Housing's coordination of grant money, donations, volunteers and organizations.
"Probably 99 percent of the people we work with are elderly or disabled," Rapidan Better Housing Program Coordinator Cindy Reid said.
Within the last year, Rapidan Better Housing, through partnerships entities and organizations like USDA Rural Development, Rebuilding Together, families, and volunteers completed 16 projects that improved the safety, health and quality of life for neighbors in need.
"We do basic health and safety home repair for low-income families," Reid explained.
Help with the costs and labor associated with installing ramps, handrails and grabs and other retro-fits to increase accessibility and safety are part of what Rapidan Better Housing oversees. But sometimes, the projects are larger-scaled when roofs leak or bathroom floors threaten to cave in. Other projects upgrade, install or repair plumbing, wells and drainfields to bring dwellings up to health department standards. Sometimes Rapidan Better Housing volunteers install special flashing-light smoke detectors for deaf residents.
In one recent project, an elderly couple, (one a double amputee and the other a stroke survivor), were provided with mobility and safety after a ramp was installed, and floors and plumbing were repaired to make them usable. Another project involved a new well, drainfield and roof repairs for an elderly widow.
County residents who qualify for help from Rapidan Better Housing are referred to Reid sometimes from the health department, schools or social services, other times, folks who need help learn about Rapidan Better Housing from community organizations like the RRCSB-AAA or from hospices.
Orange County Director of Social Services Bob Lingo said that in hard times, not everyone can keep up with the expenses of homeownership. Illness or unemployment, injuries or medical bills can leave anyone just one paycheck (or Social Security check) away from being homeless. And for folks on the brink, a large-scale roof repair to keep the weather out, or a floor without holes and gaps to trap a walker or wheelchair is an unimaginable luxury. That's when the term "affordable housing" takes on a whole new meaning, according to Lingo.
"Orange County Social Services has worked with Rapidan Better Housing to identify those, especially among the elderly, with the need, but not the means, to obtain or repair handicap access ramps, wells, drain fields and even entire homes," Lingo said. "I know for certain that there are folks in their homes in Orange County who would not be but for their efforts."
In fact, one of Rapidan Better Housing's most involved and comprehensive projects is currently moving towards a start date, but would never have made it from paperwork and forms to reality without collaboration from a number of sources.
For one family, an initial request for a roof repair turned into a much larger undertaking. After an inspection by Reid, it was clear that far more than a run-of-the-mill roof patching would be required for the residents of the humble dwelling-including two young children-to have a safe, secure home. Not only was the roof falling in, but the floor was falling through and the windows were falling out, Reid said.
"There was nothing salvageable about the house," she said.
Through a combined effort from the school system, Rapidan Better Housing and multiple local not-for-profit groups, funding was successfully secured for the construction of a suitable house and an adequate drainfield to accompany. But that took phone calls, letters, grants and networking, not to mention a ton of time.
Not all projects are quite as involved or long term. "We can do some things a lot faster," Reid said, especially when all that's needed is a little help getting back and forth, not a major construction effort.
Rapidan Better Housing's wheelchair ramp loaner system lets someone who's recent broken hip and subsequent wheelchair confinement, for example, have safe and independent entry to their home. Then, once the ramp is no longer needed, Rapidan Better Housing volunteers pack it up and move it to the next place where it's needed.
"We'll pick it up and recycle it around," Reid explained.
Sometimes, a front stoop that's been adapted for a wheelchair or a walker is enough to avert a crisis and add accessibility, if the cost for a contractor to build that ramp would break the bank.
"Sometimes families can get by okay if they can just get up and down those steps,"
Reid said it's like putting together the pieces of a puzzle: matching up residents' requests for help when there are holes in the roof or the plumbing has stopped working with the funding that's out there-somewhere.
Some of the resources that have helped provide safe haven, literally, for needy families are through state and federal agencies like the Department of Housing. The hard part is matching the project to the potential funding and volunteers to perform the labor, Reid said. But when it all comes together, the results are astounding.
"In the first three quarters of this year (starting in July 08), we have used $4,732 in state funds and the value of our match (our partnerships) was $30,163," Reid said.
And while Reid's gotten pretty proficient at finding funds to pay for county residents' referrals and requests, she hasn't had much luck finding money for some of Rapidan Better Housing's expenses. Those costs include Rapidan Better Housing salaries (she's the only employee), or reimbursement for fuel expenses for driving out to sites or even for Rapidan Better Housing's phone bill. Office space, utilities and some funding or administrative costs is donated by Madison County.
"Our needs are not big," she said. But Rapidan Better Housing's request for funding in the recently adopted FY 2010 county budget was not granted.
"We had requested $7,000," Reid said, the same amount that the not-for-profit requested-and got-from the board of supervisors the previous year.
According to Reid, Rapidan Better Housing was first organized close to 20 years ago because there was no arm of county government to deal with housing condition crises. Rapidan Better Housing performs the duties and services that are carried out by municipal government in some localities.
"The reason we started this nonprofit is because there is no housing authority, there's no housing service, and there still isn't." But there's still the need for the services of organizations like Rapidan Better Housing.
Reid said she expects to appear at a board of supervisors, even though the budget, and the amount of funding-if any-for the not-for-profits that made requests is already a done deal.
"I know the process is over and the money is allotted," Reid said, "but I feel like it's important to let them know a little more information about what we do, who we help and how we do it."
After all, she added, "When we work together, it provides a framework of services so the elderly, the low-income and those with disabilities don't fall through the cracks."