Westminster, Vt.
But that program is at a crossroads.
With a major funding source running out, the Westminster-based nonprofit is seeking a significant increase in federal grant money in order to extend and expand its emergency home repair program in Windham and Windsor counties.
The organization is seeing increased demand for such repairs even as funding sources have decreased, so Executive Director Steve Geller said the need is critical.
“The continued existence of the program is by no means a certainty,” Geller said. “If we don’t get adequate funding from one or more sources, it could jeopardize our ability to sustain it.”
Southeastern Vermont Community Action has been around for more than 50 years and provides a wide variety of services to low-income residents.
Those include fuel, clothing and food assistance as well as support for affordable housing and homelessness prevention. SEVCA, as it is known, also is involved in Head Start and economic development programs, and it operates thrift stores in Bellows Falls, Springfield and White River Junction.
In the organization’s most recent annual report, Geller said 2015-16 “was unusual in some respects” because SEVCA staff noticed decreasing demand for some services like crisis fuel assistance. He attributed that to a milder winter, lower heating costs and an economy that continues to improve.
At the same time, Geller said the need for other services remained high. Those included emergency housing and heating system repairs.
Housing-related services are a big part of the organization’s mission. The emergency home repair program, in fact, was founded as an outgrowth of its weatherization and energy audit services.
“Oftentimes, we would go out to do the energy audit … and find that we had to walk away because there were too many repair issues,” Geller said.
The emergency repair initiative, he said, “was a perfect coordination, because now the home repair staff can go in and do the work that’s needed, and weatherization can follow them.”
The no-cost repair program is focused on immediate health and safety risks as well as code violations and energy waste. Projects are awarded to licensed contractors who can address pressing problems with roofs, electrical service, plumbing, water heaters, stairs, septic systems and furnaces, among other areas.
There’s been no shortage of demand for the program.
Recent SEVCA reports show that, from October 2010 to September 2016, 167 households received emergency repair work. Over the last three years covered by those reports, repairs were valued at a total of nearly $300,000.
A patchwork of funding sources has supported that work. U.S. Department of Agriculture money has played a big role, though the annual allocation for SEVCA’s repair program was cut from $50,000 to $25,000 several years ago.
The organization also received $100,000 from the Holt Fund to support emergency home repairs. But that three-year grant ran out at the end of June and can’t be renewed, Geller said.
Even with the Holt money, there’s a 30-household waiting list for emergency repairs.
So the nonprofit has given notice of its intent to apply for $75,000 in USDA grant funding to bolster the program. The request is for the federal fiscal year starting on Oct. 1, and Geller said his organization has “other small sources of funding that can tide us over for the summer.”