Our Stories

LISC Releases Report on Home Repair in Jackson County

4.23.2024 — LISC StoriesAffordable Housing

Minor home repair is a critical but often overlooked means to combat displacement, maintain a home’s value that can be passed on next generation, ensure a safe and healthy living environment, reduce utility bills, preserve a home’s valuable and often historic building materials, and more.

With generous support from Jackson County, Missouri, LISC GKC recently commissioned a report on minor home repair resources within the county. The Jackson County: Minor Home Repair Program Study, created by Hoxie Collective, surveyed providers of home repair and home modifications throughout the county to inform homeowners, policymakers, local government, funders, and intermediaries like LISC.

As the report points out, “While the costs to maintain and repair the integrity and operation of homes are significant, they are a fraction of the cost of new construction. Maintaining existing housing stock is a key factor in the affordable housing challenge. Keeping people in stable and affordable housing means that seniors can age in place close to their networks of caregivers; working adults maintain access to stable jobs and community connections; and children remain in stable educational, social, and caregiving environments.”

Hoxie interviewed 17 organizations to better understand their work, the number of households they serve, repair/modification/weatherization services provided, application process, sources of funding, sources of labor (contractors or volunteers), challenges they face, and future program goals. Based on information from service providers and promising practices from other cities across the country, recommendations were developed to build capacity of minor home repair programs in Jackson County and serve more households.

The organizations involved in this study provided a wide variety of home repair and weatherization services for approximately 2,500 households in 2023. We know the demand and need for home repair is vastly greater than this. Through the Regional Housing Partnership and LISC’s own housing efforts, we are working to identify and bring in additional sources of funding for home repair in order to provide services to more households and to better support the organizations doing this incredibly important work.

We thank these participating individuals and organizations for sharing their time and expertise and for the impactful work they do in our communities:

If you are a homeowner or tenant in Jackson County, Missouri in need of home repair, weatherization, and/or home modifications to help you age in place, please click on the name of the organization linked above to learn more and apply to them directly. More information on specific services provided by each organization and which organizations serve renters can be found in the summary tables on pages 30-35 of the report.

None
Jackson County: Minor Home Repair Report

Home repair is a critical but often overlooked means to preserve affordable housing and generational wealth. With generous support from Jackson County Missouri, LISC Greater Kansas City recently commissioned Hoxie Collective to create a report on repair sources within the county. The report provides information from 17 providers of home repair the county and is meant to be a resource for homeowners, policymakers, local government, funders, and intermediaries like LISC.

Download the PDF here

Contact

Amanda Wilson
Email