Habitat for Humanity Manatee County

Barbara has been living in her Palmetto home for the past 30 years. Built circa 1955, she purchased the home as a single woman with the intention of raising her youngest son in it. “This is home for me. The neighborhood has changed a lot over the years, but it’s all I know,” she said.

Every few years, she makes a least one repair to maintain the house. She’s had to replace the roof twice, fix busted pipes, and do sporadic paid jobs. When she was married, she and her husband would split the costs however, since he moved abroad, the financial burden of maintaining the home has been difficult for her to shoulder alone. 

For the past few years, termites had been eating away at her windows. Whenever it rained, they would leak, and with just tape holding them in, even the wind would shake them. “They were so weak that I was afraid that if you leaned on them, they would fall out,” said Barbara.

They were becoming more and more of a safety hazard, but Barbara didn’t have the money to repair them all. She reached out to The City of Palmetto, and they advised that she contact Manatee County Habitat for Humanity.

In 2022, she applied for our Critical Home Repair Program. “I didn’t think that I was going to get accepted, but I made it… It was worth the wait,” said Barbara.

When our critical repair program team went to inspect her home, they found that in addition to her deteriorated windows, she didn’t have a fascia or soffits to enclose her roof. Without them, her home was more subject to insect and termite infestations.

In February 2023, we repaired all nine of her windows, replaced her back door, and installed fascia and soffits on her roof.

“When they told me about everything that I needed, I thought that if I could just get my fascia repaired, I would’ve been happy, but they went ahead and did my windows as well,” said Barabra. “It’s been a huge weight off my back.” With her new windows, she now feels much safer in her home.

This critical home repair was funded by the Bishop Parker Foundation.