DLF Community offers basic upgrades to seniors' homes

DLF Community volunteers help a resident on a workday project.

In the post-Great Recession era, homeownership appears like a pipe dream to many families. Rising home prices and creeping gentrification, along with student debt, tight mortgage credit, decreasing existing home inventory, and household wages that lag behind housing prices have blocked many first-time homebuyers and stalled homeowners who want to move into another home.

According to an annual report released this week by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, the national homeownership rate dropped to 63.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015. The multifaceted report also offers an extensive look at trends in rental costs, foreclosures, home equity, population changes, and poverty. (Download the report or view housing costs maps.)

   

In Dallas, the housing climate threatens the ability of many seniors to sustain their dream of homeownership. They cling to houses they’ve owned and loved for decades, but they struggle to pay for repairs that would keep their homes safe, comfortable, and unaffected by costly code enforcement. 

DLF Community the community and neighborhood development arm of Dallas Leadership Foundation, routinely hears about the daunting circumstances many seniors face. Seniors number about one in every three households DLF Community serves. Many of these seniors are U.S. veterans.

For example, in West Dallas, one of the 11 neighborhoods DLF Community has targeted, seniors and other residents are hard hit as the area rapidly gentrifies. (To read some views about gentrification in Dallas, check out this and this.)

DLF Community Director Jamee Rodgers said residents in gentrifying areas are “having the struggle of having property values going up, so their property taxes are going up. So they’re getting approached all of the time by developers who want to buy their homes for pennies on the dollar just to get them out so they can get the property. They’re having struggles with that issue. As much as revitalization is needed, revitalization for those who are already there is what the key should be.”

DLF Community advocates for residents by working on their behalf with city officials. DLF Community also works with neighborhood association leaders to identify homeowners who need help with basic upgrades such as providing cleanup, grass mowing and yard lamps.  

More than 150 beautification and rehabilitation projects have been completed this year by DLF Community.

“We’re trying to come in with our projects to help as many of them as we can,” Rodgers said, “to keep them from losing their homes or getting fined.”

Multiple citations for code infractions threaten home ownership because homeowners are unable to bring their homes up to code and pay the fines. Seniors may struggle disproportionately because they live on a fixed income.

DLF Community has a pool of funds to pay for supplies to help veterans with home repairs. The funding source doesn’t cover labor costs, however. DLF Community is also recommending homes for exterior wood and paint repairs that could be part of the Transform Dallas citywide workday project in 2017. 

Learn how you can support and promote the DLF Community program at Dallas Leadership Foundation by visiting dlftx.org.

Transform Dallas volunteers preserve a special memory

Not just any paint could be used for Shirley Pleasant’s Hamilton Park home. She and her late husband, Clabon E. Pleasant, Sr., chose the colorful combo of sea breeze and white years ago to bring a touch of brightness to their neighborhood. And she wanted to keep it that way. During her husband's illness -- he battled Alzheimer's disease and cancer — she had focused solely on caring for him and keeping their home's interior comfortable. She hadn’t worked on exterior maintenance, she said.

"When you have a person in your home that's been sick for a while -- any length of time like he was with that Alzheimer’s -- you let things go,” she said. "You just let it go."

After her husband's passing in 2013, Mrs. Pleasant wanted to paint the house, but the project required oil-based paint and would be costly. On top of that, house painting was unfamiliar territory. Her husband, a World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Army and earned four Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart and three overseas bars for tours in Normandy, Northern France, Central Europe, and Rhineland, had diligently maintained their home. "He always took care of everything so immaculately,” she said. "I really didn't know anything about painting.”

Through the collaboration between caring Hamilton Park neighborhood leaders and Dallas Leadership Foundation, volunteers gave her home a fresh coat of paint during the Transform Dallas workday. To show her appreciation, she served volunteers pizza and put out lawn chairs where they could take breaks. She said she was also impressed by the young people who pitched in to paint. 

"My prayer has been:  God just help me get through everything I need to get through,” Mrs. Pleasant said. While she’s continuing to adjust to living without her husband, she's grateful for the sea breeze-and-white paint that preserves a priceless family memory.

To learn more about Dallas Leadership Foundation and its community partnerships, or to contribute, visit dlftx.org.