It’s More Than a Coat of Paint: Repairing Hearts and Homes with Home Repairs Ministries
It’s More Than a Coat of Paint: Repairing Hearts and Homes with Home Repairs Ministries
20 years ago, a woman of faith had a dream.
Her name was Margie, and she needed critical repairs on her Stone Mountain home. She’d found Home Repairs Ministries (HRM), a nonprofit founded in 2006 by Perimeter Church, willing to help.
Volunteers and then-Executive Director Neale Hightower spent months working on her home and building a relationship with her.
Then Margie had a dream. She dreamt of a truck featuring Home Repairs Ministries’ branding. Last year, thanks to a Gwinnett County grant, current Executive Director Heather Loveridge saw this dream become a reality.
And thanks to Home Repairs, Margie is still living in the same house, 20 years later.
It’s stories like these that remind Heather how God is working in and through the ministry.
She first connected with Home Repairs Ministries through the marketing agency she founded.
“[HRM] was a client starting in 2019, and I had always loved what the ministry did. The then-executive director and I became friends,” Heather shared. “When they were looking for a new executive director, he told the board that I may be interested.”
Two years ago, she officially assumed the role.
“I love the mission,” Heather said. “I love being out in the community helping homeowners. I love the mixture of things — from going to events and meeting people to sharing about Home Repairs to being on site with our volunteers and our team to getting to meet homeowners and hearing their stories.”
Home Repairs steps in to fight homelessness — but not through providing a new career path or transitional housing.
“Not everyone realizes that affordable housing is a huge issue nationwide, especially here in the counties we serve,” she said. “We’re helping to be a solution to that by helping people stay in their homes.”
Through dedicated volunteer teams and key partnerships with local roofing companies, plumbers, HVAC technicians and more, Home Repairs Ministries is addressing critical repairs that allow veterans, seniors, foster parents and homeowners with disabilities to stay in their homes.
These repairs are more than cosmetic fixes. The team has repaired porch stairs so a grandmother with limited mobility can safely enter and exit her home. They’ve installed an outdoor ramp so a wife can transport her wheelchair-bound husband to the doctor as he recovers from a stroke. They’ve helped homeowners repair their exteriors to comply with local housing codes, so elderly homeowners or those with disabilities don’t face eviction.
“It’s often homelessness prevention because without us, in some cases, homeowners don’t know where they would go,” Heather explained.
“Our tagline says ‘repairing hearts and homes together’ because it truly is more than just a repair. It’s knowing what’s going on in the homeowners’ lives, caring for them in the best way we can, showing up and doing what we’ll say we’ll do.”
Recently, the Home Repairs team tackled a project for a family with two children on the autism spectrum. When one son grew upset or overstimulated, he would kick the walls or bash his head against them. Then the other son would eat the damaged dry wall.
For this family, repairs weren’t a cosmetic need. It was a safety hazard that the parents were desperately trying to fix.
Then, part of their ceiling collapsed into their kids’ bedroom due to condensation overflow from a faulty air conditioner. With critical repairs piling up and the busyness of caring for their children, this couple was overwhelmed.
After scouring the internet for help, they found Home Repairs Ministries.
"We put up new [wainscoting] on the walls, and we had a crew come in to paint,” Heather explained. “Even that fresh coat of paint made a world of difference. When mom and dad walked back in, they had huge smiles on their faces.
“Things like this may seem small to others, but they made a world of difference [to this family]. It just takes people who care showing up and being willing.”
With each home repair, Heather says her team is “building on the prayers of those who have gone before us.”
“Margie was a prayer warrior,” Heather shared. “She prayed for Home Repairs, prayed for volunteers, prayed for the executive director.”
Now, 20 years later, the repairs are still covered in prayer.
“We pray with our volunteers before the project starts. If our homeowners allow us, we pray with them as well,” she said.
“We can do everything under the sun, but if God’s not blessing it, if He’s not giving us favor in many different ways, then what we’re doing is in vain.”
It’s More Than a Coat of Paint: Repairing Hearts and Homes with Home Repairs Ministries
It’s More Than a Coat of Paint: Repairing Hearts and Homes with Home Repairs Ministries
20 years ago, a woman of faith had a dream.
Her name was Margie, and she needed critical repairs on her Stone Mountain home. She’d found Home Repairs Ministries (HRM), a nonprofit founded in 2006 by Perimeter Church, willing to help.
Volunteers and then-Executive Director Neale Hightower spent months working on her home and building a relationship with her.
Then Margie had a dream. She dreamt of a truck featuring Home Repairs Ministries’ branding. Last year, thanks to a Gwinnett County grant, current Executive Director Heather Loveridge saw this dream become a reality.
And thanks to Home Repairs, Margie is still living in the same house, 20 years later.
It’s stories like these that remind Heather how God is working in and through the ministry.
She first connected with Home Repairs Ministries through the marketing agency she founded.
“[HRM] was a client starting in 2019, and I had always loved what the ministry did. The then-executive director and I became friends,” Heather shared. “When they were looking for a new executive director, he told the board that I may be interested.”
Two years ago, she officially assumed the role.
“I love the mission,” Heather said. “I love being out in the community helping homeowners. I love the mixture of things — from going to events and meeting people to sharing about Home Repairs to being on site with our volunteers and our team to getting to meet homeowners and hearing their stories.”
Home Repairs steps in to fight homelessness — but not through providing a new career path or transitional housing.
“Not everyone realizes that affordable housing is a huge issue nationwide, especially here in the counties we serve,” she said. “We’re helping to be a solution to that by helping people stay in their homes.”
Through dedicated volunteer teams and key partnerships with local roofing companies, plumbers, HVAC technicians and more, Home Repairs Ministries is addressing critical repairs that allow veterans, seniors, foster parents and homeowners with disabilities to stay in their homes.
These repairs are more than cosmetic fixes. The team has repaired porch stairs so a grandmother with limited mobility can safely enter and exit her home. They’ve installed an outdoor ramp so a wife can transport her wheelchair-bound husband to the doctor as he recovers from a stroke. They’ve helped homeowners repair their exteriors to comply with local housing codes, so elderly homeowners or those with disabilities don’t face eviction.
“It’s often homelessness prevention because without us, in some cases, homeowners don’t know where they would go,” Heather explained.
“Our tagline says ‘repairing hearts and homes together’ because it truly is more than just a repair. It’s knowing what’s going on in the homeowners’ lives, caring for them in the best way we can, showing up and doing what we’ll say we’ll do.”
Recently, the Home Repairs team tackled a project for a family with two children on the autism spectrum. When one son grew upset or overstimulated, he would kick the walls or bash his head against them. Then the other son would eat the damaged dry wall.
For this family, repairs weren’t a cosmetic need. It was a safety hazard that the parents were desperately trying to fix.
Then, part of their ceiling collapsed into their kids’ bedroom due to condensation overflow from a faulty air conditioner. With critical repairs piling up and the busyness of caring for their children, this couple was overwhelmed.
After scouring the internet for help, they found Home Repairs Ministries.
"We put up new [wainscoting] on the walls, and we had a crew come in to paint,” Heather explained. “Even that fresh coat of paint made a world of difference. When mom and dad walked back in, they had huge smiles on their faces.
“Things like this may seem small to others, but they made a world of difference [to this family]. It just takes people who care showing up and being willing.”
With each home repair, Heather says her team is “building on the prayers of those who have gone before us.”
“Margie was a prayer warrior,” Heather shared. “She prayed for Home Repairs, prayed for volunteers, prayed for the executive director.”
Now, 20 years later, the repairs are still covered in prayer.
“We pray with our volunteers before the project starts. If our homeowners allow us, we pray with them as well,” she said.
“We can do everything under the sun, but if God’s not blessing it, if He’s not giving us favor in many different ways, then what we’re doing is in vain.”
