UCHRA has launched a new home repair program to help senior citizens throughout the Upper Cumberland.
Executive Director Mark Farley said the program is designed to help with handyman home repairs that senior citizens cannot do on their own. Farley said the agency wanted to provide a trustworthy home repair service.
“You know, one of the things that we are hearing is that too many of our seniors are being taken advantage of when it comes to home repair programs,” Farley said. “And we want to be able to provide an option for them to be able to do something safely and with confidence that they are not being taken advantage of.”
Farley said seniors will pay for the service to be done. He also said he hopes to get the program off the ground.
“We’ve just done some informal advertising, and I think we do have our first projects being done, and then we are gonna roll this out at our senior expo that is coming up at the end of October to really advertise it,” Farley said. “We have done some soft advertising with some of the home health agencies and with our senior centers and various groups like that, so we expect it to take off within the next month.”
Farley said the employees performing the repairs will be vetted. Farley said seniors being taken advantage of is a huge problem not only in the Upper Cumberland but also nationwide.
“We just got a lot of people out here that they lack the morals and the standards, and they take advantage of the vulnerable population,” Farley said. “A lot of times our seniors, they are not up to date with what things cost, and sometimes they get convinced to pay far more than what they really need to be.”
Farley said UCHRA is investing money up front into the program and that, hopefully, the program will have a good cash flow to sustain itself over time.
