For 36 years, Mountain Housing Opportunities has provided free health- and safety-related home repair services to our low-income and vulnerable neighbors through the Essential Home Repair program. With housing costs continuing to rise, we need your support now more than ever. Will you donate today to ensure our neighbors can stay healthy and housed in the homes they already own?
Behind each home repair is a story: a local person—sometimes an entire family—whose home was saved because of these critical repairs. Below is a thank-you note from a recent home repair client who lived without access to hot water for over a year before receiving a new water heater from MHO. Her story is just one of many, and stories like this wouldn’t be possible without supporters like you.
To the kind folks at Mountain Housing Opportunities:
I am sending my heartfelt thanks for the hot water heater that was installed this past month in my home. After living without hot water for over a year, I am so much less stressed to now be able to take a shower whenever I need one, without planning a trip to the YMCA or – as was often the case – braving the cold shower.
I am so grateful that throughout the process I was treated with dignity and respect. It’s hard to ask for help, but I am that I finally did. Bless you all for the work you do in our community.
With gratitude,
Barbara*
Essential home repairs also strengthen the financial health and well-being of low-income and vulnerable homeowners by protecting their largest financial asset: their home. The critical repairs ensure that homes remain structurally viable, livable, and safe. These repairs help prevent people from being displaced from their homes and experiencing housing instability or homelessness.
If you are able, please consider donating to our Essential Home Repair program. Your contribution will immediately be put to use providing lifesaving home repairs for one of the over 50 local households currently on our waiting list. Thank you for supporting our mission to build hope and dignity in the people we serve.
MHO’s Essential Home Repair program helps people live better for longer in their own homes.
Your donation helps neighbors like Donna and James, 70 and 76, who needed ceiling repairs and a new roof after water damaged the home they’ve owned for 38 years. You help families like Andrea and Justin, who needed a new roof and heating system to help keep Oscar and Oliver, their 9-year-old twin boys, healthy while living with a chronic respiratory disease. You support people like Robin, 62, who lived without running water in her home for over four years. MHO re-established her water and sewer service, repaired pipes, and overhauled her bathroom for safety—adding fresh flooring and a new shower, sink, and toilet.
What is the Essential Home Repair program (EHR)?
MHO provides health and safety-related repairs to very low-income and special needs homeowners. This includes repairing or replacing heating, plumbing, roofing, flooring, septic, and electrical systems. The EHR program also ensures accessibility needs by installing wheelchair ramps, railings, and grab bars. Essential Home Repair improves quality of life, preserves affordable housing, and prevents displacement and homelessness.
Who does EHR serve?
MHO serves older adults, people with disabilities, single parent households, and families with 3+ dependent children in Buncombe County. Through our partnership in the Healthy Opportunities Pilot, an Impact Health Program, MHO now serves Medicaid-enrolled residents in Buncombe, McDowell, Yancey, and Rutherford Counties.
How does my donation help?
For every dollar we receive in private donations, we leverage an additional $3 in funding from other sources. That means that your gift is matched 3:1! Contributions from donors like you allow MHO to provide the repairs our neighbors need to stay healthy and keep their homes liveable. Thank you!
*Client’s name has been changed to protect their privacy.
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