Roof Installation for Senior Citizens?

Judy
Gold Post Medal for All Time! 677 Posts

July 18, 20180 found this helpful

I would ask your church or Habitat for Humanity

Pghgirl40
Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 196 Feedbacks

July 18, 20180 found this helpful

I am so sorry to hear of your troubles. You raised a good son that he is helping you by buying the materials!!

I have two suggestions:

1. Do you belong to a religious organization (church, synagogue, mosque etc.)? Some have discretionary funds that are used to help parishioners in need. It is all very private and no one needs to know. Perhaps they could pay to have the roofer install or maybe someone in the congregation is a roofer and they could pay him/her or he/she could donate the services.

2. Since you have a computer and are posting here, have you considered setting up a Go Fund Me or like crowd sourcing pages?
They are fairly easy to do, you tell your story and ask for help. I know from first hand experience they work if you work to get the message out there. You could use this the same as above...if someone can give you a set, you can use the go fund me to help rent a truck and buy pizza for the delivery crew.

The only thing is I also recently learned they may count as income and may need reported to the IRS....see this link www.post-gazette.com/.../201805230153

If you go this route, you may want to have a professional do your taxes for the year of the process.

Sending up prayers that you can get the roof installed quickly!

cybergrannie
Gold Feedback Medal for All Time! 949 Feedbacks

July 19, 20180 found this helpful

Roofing is such a big expense and very difficult to find "free" labor mainly because of city/county permits there has to be a licensed roofer to oversee the job.

• You do not say if this is a house or a mobile home but if it is a mobile home then you most likely will not be able to find any government agency (that usually includes Habitat) that will approve a fund or help.
• Also, being seniors does not (in itself) always qualify you for assistance - you will also have to fall in the "low income" category for most government/Habitat assistance. (Usually this is the case, but this should not keep you from applying for help on any site that offers assistance to seniors.)
• You can try any of these programs as they are government and open to everyone. The process is sometimes long and the actual help may take several months to proceed.
• www.hud.gov/
• www.rd.usda.gov/.../single-family-housing-repair-loans...
• www.habitat.org/
• Pghgirl40 has suggestions about your local community and these are always a good place to start.
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• You can also Google your question with your zip code and I feel sure you will find several places to begin your search for help.
• You will need to understand that roofing installation is usually much more than the cost of materials. City/county permits have to be obtained (and permits cost cash and they are not cheap) and licensed person has to oversee the job - they will have to be on site when the city/county sign off on the job.
• Also, repairing/replacing a roof is a very "iffy" job as they do not know what condition the actual framing is until they start the job. Could be more money for replacement of framing.
• If it is a very big job, equipment will be needed to get the material to the workers on the roof and trucks/dumpster will be needed to haul off the old roofing and someone has to pay for that removal. Also, Florida now requires a port-a-potty on site for any job that takes more than one day and all of this requires cash outlay.
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• Companies have to have liability insurance (very costly to them) but anyone else working on your property will be covered by your homeowners insurance.
• I am only stating these facts as many of them may come to light if you are not able to get a government/Habitat agency to help you.
• Most important - do not give up - be patient and if one says no - go to another site.