Homeowner Spotlight: The Brown Family
Homeowner Spotlight: The Brown Family
Karen Brown is no stranger to personal health challenges. She has Lupus, moderate asthma and hypertension. Her younger daughter is also an asthma sufferer. Last year, leaking water from a damaged roof created an ideal environment for mold to grow. The mold was more than just a nuisance. For people with asthma, breathing mold spores can trigger a major health emergency.
Ms. Brown, a full-time library technician for the Smithsonian, moved into to her home in Southeast, DC when her elderly father became too sick to live alone. After his death in 2020, Ms. Brown inherited the home, built in 1938. “Before he got sick, my father did a lot of work on the house,” she said. “He declined and couldn’t walk or move. A lot of our money went to taking care of him, and we were not able to do significant home repair.”
For help fixing the roof, Ms. Brown turned to Lydia’s House, a neighborhood community development organization and a longtime Yachad partner. Insurance money paid for repair of part of the roof, but leaking water from the broken roof over the back of the house was still producing mold. The result: damaged walls and closet spaces, and pieces of the ceiling would periodically break off and fall to the floor.
Through Lydia’s House, Ms. Brown learned about Yachad. With funds from the National Fair Housing Alliance and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, YACHAD was able to replace the damaged roof.
That wasn’t all. The ImpactDC Asthma Clinic at Children’s Hospital, another Yachad partner, recommended further steps to reduce asthma risk, such as replacing filters and weekly vacuuming of carpets, couches and chairs. Yachad also helped Ms. Brown apply to the Capital Area Asset Building (CAAB) program. This Yachad partner helps lower-income families get access to resources and tools to achieve financial stability and build long-term wealth. CAAB offers a four-to-one match to homeowners investing in major property upgrades. So with $1,500 provided by Yachad, Ms. Brown received a $6,000 CAAB match. The funds were enough for a major kitchen renovation by Alan Kanner, a general contractor and Yachad board member.
|