Roof Repair Assistance for Low Income Homeowner?

Judy
Gold Post Medal for All Time! 677 Posts

June 26, 20181 found this helpful

I think most contractors will let you finance.

Pghgirl40
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June 27, 20180 found this helpful

I am so sorry to hear of your troubles. I have a few suggestions...which are:

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 would let you pay it back with no interest (or suggest ways to "pay it forward").

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. 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.

3. Do you have a Habitat for Humanity or other like organization in your area who could offer help or guidance? www.habitat.org/ There is a search on the site for local entities.

4. Do you have a community college in your town that offers carpentry classes? If so, call there and see if they offer a program where the students to the work if you pay the materials. Just be sure to understand exactly how it works and if you have any recourse if they do a bad job...they are students and it probably won't be perfect...although ideally it could be.

5. If you have a health condition...like if you have MS, or asthma, or a heart condition, or if you are a senior...contact the national organization for your situation and see if they can offer help. For seniors, I know there is an Area Agency on Aging in my state that helps people... I have no personal experience with this, but read not long ago about how this worked for to build a handicap accessible bathroom for someone...a roof may also be something they help with.

Good luck with your search! I will send up positive thoughts that you find a good solution!

cybergrannie
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June 28, 20180 found this helpful

You do not say if you have a family and many times families can get more help if there are children involved.
It will be a problem to get a contractor to do roof repairs for someone that does not have good credit and near impossible for someone to do a completely new roof. A new roof is one of the most expensive repairs that a house will ever need and the materials cost has to be paid "up-front" which means directly out of the contractor's pocket long before they will ever see any returns on their work.

• You can apply to Habitat but I do not believe they will help if you are not either low-income, senior, on disability, or there are children involved (living in a an unsafe or unhealthy environment). Give them a try for sure. Find your local office here:
• www.programsforelderly.com/housing-habitat-for-humanity-critical...
• Local churches will sometimes try to help but a new roof is too big a job and several permits are required as a new roof will require some qualified workers and not just "volunteers".
• You could try talking to someone at your local family services to see if they can give you any suggestions.
• You can also make an appeal for help/assistance on Craigslist and Freecycle as they will sometimes have people who will trade work if you have skills they can use at their home or business.
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• You may have to start a "roof" fund and if you put money into it every payday, it will soon build up and it may be possible to show your dedication to a contractor and they might consider doing some repairs on a payment plan.