Community Comes Together to Gift Senior Citizen New Roof

By Alec Doniger. 

A resident in a mobile home park was nearly evicted, but the people of Clark County worked together to help her. 

Lynn, a senior citizen living in a mobile home, received a cease-and-desist notice from an attorney representing the trailer park she had been living in for 25 years. The notice explained that her roof was rotting and that it was in immediate need of repair. If she failed to comply, she would be evicted from her home within five days.  

Her roof began losing shingles two years ago. Over time, its condition worsened and mold began to grow in her home because of the leakage.  

Lynn, who asked to remain anonymous, lives on $1,000 of Social Security per month. $550 of that goes towards her rent. She lives within a very tight budget and didn’t have the means to acquire a new roof by herself. If she was to be evicted, she wouldn’t have anywhere to turn. 

“If I am somehow forced to sell this, I’ll be on the road, homeless,” Lynn explained in an interview with The Columbian. “There’s nowhere I could afford to live.”  

To remedy the situation, her daughter tried nailing plastic sheeting and a tarp to the roof. Unfortunately, her efforts were unsuccessful. The sheeting melted in the sun and pieces of it flew into the neighbors’ backyards. 

Her predicament was beginning to seem dire, but then Lynn reached out the Clark County Treasurers Office; the office had been aiding her with property tax exemptions. Treasurer Alicia Topper posted about the situation on Facebook, and within a few hours the Clark County, Vancouver community came together to help.  

Wendy Marvin, CEO of Matrix Roof + Home, sent inspectors to her home to see what repairs were necessary. From there, she secured a materials donation through Habitat for Humanity. Collectively, ABC Supply and GAF supplied the materials. Thanks to additional community donations, the repair was completed at no cost to Lynn. 

She expressed her gratitude, saying, “I want to thank Alishia and the other community members for their stunning, stunning generosity.”  

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About Alec  

Alec is a reporter for RoofersCoffeeShop, MetalCoffeeShop and AskARoofer. When he isn’t investigating the state of the roofing industry, you might find him playing drums with his bands in Denver.     

Photo credit: The Coloumbian