Housing coalition needs help to help others

Family members, including a 5-year-old child, falling through the floors of a rotting mobile home. Rundown residences with no heat in the winter or air conditioning in the summer. And some houses that don’t even have water which forces families living there to tote it from someplace else.

These are just a few of the numerous real-life conditions that some people in McDowell have to endure. But many caring folks are willing to help their neighbors in need. That is where the McDowell Housing Coalition steps in to connect those who are willing to help with those who can really use their assistance.

In November 2009, the County Commission endorsed the idea of forming a McDowell Housing Coalition. The effort would come up with a plan to solve McDowell’s housing needs. The coalition would not seek to duplicate what churches and other groups are already doing here. Instead, it would work to better coordinate those efforts.

And for the past year, L. Darline Atamanchuk has been the coalition’s coordinator. The 58-year-old Atamanchuk came to this job after being a full-time student and working as a Title V employee through the Isothermal Planning and Development Commission. The Title V program seeks to get folks 55 and older back into the workplace.

Although her family name is Ukrainian, she has lived all over North Carolina. She sold real estate in Raleigh, which gave her lots of knowledge about houses, their problems and how they can be fixed.

“I learned a lot,” she says. “I asked a lot of questions.”

Through the Title V program, Atamanchuk was able to get her new position as the coordinator for the McDowell Housing Coalition. It is a part-time job that pays $11.39 an hour. She took over the position a year ago today. Recently, a reception was held in her honor to help folks get better acquainted with her and what the coalition does.

The McDowell Housing Coalition provides materials and the services of volunteers or professionals, as needed, to make repairs for homes that are selected. It is comes under the McDowell Council on Human Services. The coalition’s mission is to provide help for qualified low-income, elderly and disabled homeowners with urgent house repair issues.

At the time it was formed, county officials said a need certainly exists in McDowell concerning low-income senior citizens and the disabled who live in houses that are in constant of need of repair and maintenance.

Atamanchuk’s job is to process the applications that come in and find out who can best take care of something as serious as a leaky roof, floors in danger of collapsing and dried up wells. At Monday’s County Commission meeting, she gave the 2011 annual report about what the coalition has done for the previous year.

In 2011, the coalition had 19 completed projects and referred 15 to other agencies. The coalition received $1,500 in donated materials, $3,283 in monetary donations and $3,500 worth of donated services.

The coalition has brought together volunteers from Operation Inasmuch, the youth organization from Ridgecrest, the Carolina Cross Connection, the John Roach Fishers of Men group from Pleasant Gardens Baptist Church and many others. Numerous businesses, churches and school students have pitched in to help their neighbors in need too. The volunteers have repaired roofs on mobile homes, cleaned up lawns, done shrubbery, fixed ceilings, painted exteriors and interiors and built ramps for the disabled. The P.G. Baptist group framed and built the front porch and back ramp for the Price Katrina Cottage in a concerted community effort with Lowe’s Home Improvement Center.

“A lot of people have done a lot of good things and I am real pleased with the volunteer efforts in this community,” she said to The McDowell News.

But despite all that work, there still many people with critical housing problems. Atamanchuk said she has 25 critical needs. It would take a community effort to get these projects done and no one group could take of care them. She also has a list of small project remaining to be completed.

The list of work remaining includes 16 roofing projects, three heating and air projects, five disabled ramp or railing projects, 18 plumbing needs and 25 flooring needs.

“Most of these are trailers,” she said.

Some of the needs that come across her desk are more than just structural issues.

“I’ve got people who are without wells, children growing up without well water,” said Atamanchuk, adding these folks have to tote their water from someplace else and wash their clothes at another location.

She has plenty of volunteers wanting to help but the lack of money keeps some efforts from getting done.

“A lot of groups want to get involved,” said Atamanchuk. “It’s the funding that is a problem.”

The money comes from donations, grants, fund-raisers as well as partnerships with local businesses, individuals, churches, civic groups, fraternal organizations and schools.

But when the funding is low and the work cannot be done, Atamanchuk hears from those who have asked for help and desperately need it.

“Some of them get impatient and I have to be patient and remind them that this is volunteer and the funds are low,” she said.

In addition, the McDowell Housing Coalition could use leftover materials from a remodeling or parts not used in the building of a house. These things could be used to help improve someone else’s home.

“I have a storage place,” said Atamanchuk. “I need wholesalers who can help me out there.”

Most of all, Atamanchuk does not want to see anybody in McDowell living in terrible conditions.

“I love this job,” she said. “I truly do worry about the people. I want to see them not to have that problem anymore.”

For more information, contact the McDowell Housing Coalition at 652-7121, ext. 389. You can also email Darline Atamanchuk at home@mcdowellgov.com.