Kim & Calvin

Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity announcement.

Kim and Calvin love the central Tacoma home they’ve lived in for 23 years, but after Kim had a stroke and the couple were living on a single income, they struggled to afford the maintenance and repairs it needed. Kim contacted Tacoma Habitat’s Aging in Place (AIP) program after their furnace went out in February. They were heating their home with space heaters and their back deck was rotting and in desperate need of repair. Habitat’s AIP team replaced Kim and Calvin’s old furnace with a new high-efficiency gas furnace and removed the rotting surface of their deck, reinforced the framing, and installed new Trex composite on the deck surface and stairs. 

“I’m so happy to be able to walk on the deck without being afraid,” says Kim. “We can’t wait to have friends and family over this summer.”

About Aging in Place:

A key component to the housing continuum is preserving existing affordable housing stock and keeping people in the homes they already own; it was this idea that launched Tacoma Habitat’s AIP repair program. For many seniors, their home is the most affordable place for them to live. We knew from our research that there was tremendous unmet need across Pierce County for repair, but we couldn’t imagine that in the first six months of service delivery, we would exceed the number of jobs projected for the entire year. Our most common projects are ramp installations, roof repair, modifications to porches and decks, installation of handrails, and weatherization. The average Aging in Place client is 72 years old; 29% are Veterans and 46% are widowed female heads of household.

More than half of our Aging in Place projects are funded by donors just like you. While the homeowners pay a modest portion of the project cost, the average job costs Tacoma Habitat $6,200 and the number of projects we take on is limited by the available funding.