By JOHN KLINE

john.kline@goshennews.com

Despite dark clouds and frigid temperatures, volunteers turned out in droves Saturday morning to participate in the 19th Annual LaCasa Help-A-House Community Work Day.

Beginning early and working throughout the day, volunteers from numerous local churches, businesses, schools and service clubs joined forces with local contractors to revitalize the homes of nearly 20 lower-income Goshen homeowners.

Improvements included everything from exterior painting and landscaping to roof repair and window and door replacement.

“This is an annual event we do every year where we help low-income people with improvements on their homes,” said Lavonn Hostetler, an employee of LaCasa. “We’re doing like 20 houses today, so it’s an all day thing, it’s a lot of people, and it’s a big deal.”

Hostetler was one of many volunteers designated for work on the home of Todd Hill, located at 502 N. Seventh St. in Goshen.

“This particular group is mostly made up of Goshen College students, and we’re working on replacing the back roof at this point,” Hostetler said.

According to Hostetler, LaCasa is able to assist low income homeowners such as Hill through a combination of federal grants and a partnership with the city of Goshen.

In order to be eligible for assistance, Hostetler noted that applicants must be lower income residents of Goshen, be on city water and sewer, be a mortgage holder and be up to date on taxes.

“It’s all paid through federal money that comes to the city of Goshen, which then funnels it through to La Casa,” Hostetler said. “All the work is pretty much free to the homeowner. If they decide to sell the house at a later time, then part of the money is paid back at that time, but there is no cash up front required.”

Hill, who was recently laid off from his job at Acme Radiator & Air Conditioning Inc. in Goshen, said the assistance he is receiving through Help-A-House is more than he could have hoped for.

“It feels pretty great,” Hill said. “They’re putting in new windows, and doing the back roof, which really needed replacing. And they’re also putting insulation inside the walls.”

Hill had always intended to do the improvements himself, but noted that the downturn in the economy put a stop to that dream pretty quickly.

“We’d just started fixing up stuff, and then I lost my job,” Hill said. “My wife works at Walmart, but we don’t have much money where we can do home improvements like this. Now we’re just trying to get by.”

Meghan Hoover, one of the Goshen College students working on Hill’s home, said she sees Help-A-House as a great way to help the community while also getting away from her class work for a while.

“It’s May term right now, where we have one class every day, and it’s really stressful, so we just thought we’d have a service day and try and get people out on a Saturday to help out the community,” Hoover said.

As for the experience — her first — Hoover said she’d do it again in a heartbeat.

“It’s been great, but we had to go home and get more clothes because it’s so cold out. It was supposed to be like 70 degrees and sunny,” Hoover said with a laugh. “But yeah, it’s been really good. I feel like we’re making a lot of progress. I mean we got almost the whole roof taken off by the time that I’d normally be waking up on a Saturday, so I feel good about it, and I’d definitely do it again.”

At the home of J. Jesus Valdez, 110 W. Monroe St., Goshen, Mishawaka volunteer Pat Myers was busy putting his remodeling expertise to the test.

“I’ve got a lead abatement license, so I decided to come out and help out with the repainting,” Myers said. “We’re using lead-safe work practices, where we scrape off the old paint chips, then catch and roll them up in plastic so it’s easily disposed of and not blowing all over the neighborhood.”

Myers said that after seeing the number of Goshen homes falling into disrepair due to the economy, taking a Saturday off to help out the community was the least he could do.

“There are so many people in this area who can’t afford to put money into their houses right now,” Myers said. “I just wanted to help out where I could.”

That fact is not lost on Valdez, a 20-year Goshen resident who loves his home, but is no longer able to keep it up without help.

“I’m very surprised, and I’m embarrassed. I don’t have the words to say how I’m feeling,” Valdez said of the generosity he’s been shown by the Help-A-House volunteers. “I really love this town, and I love my house, so I want to say thank you so much to La Casa for helping me.”