wfn.org | Church program works with USDA to help rural homeowners

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 22, 2002 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-24-71BP{231}
 
NOTE: A photograph is available with this report.

A UMNS Feature
By Cathy Farmer*

Miss Ruby has lived on the hill for most of her 76 years. That's what locals
call the high ground that climbs steeply out of the rich delta farmlands of
northwest Tennessee.

The hill is a patchwork of small hardscrabble farms like Ruby Erwin's
46-acre home place, outside the small town of Ridgely. The house, an
inheritance from her parents, has sheltered her and the dogs and cats who
keep her company since her husband left her a few years ago. 

"I can't work," Miss Ruby explains, rubbing her swollen ankles and placing a
careful hand on the elusive pain in her side.

"The doctor tells me I've got the crippling arthritis. And now I've lost a
right smart of weight. I'm not sure just why."

It isn't easy for Miss Ruby, living on the hill. Her house doesn't have
indoor plumbing, and there's no bathtub, no shower, no commode, no vanity.

She washes herself in the kitchen sink. Perched out back is an outhouse
built about six years ago by a work team from Reelfoot Rural Ministries, an
agency of the United Methodist Church's Memphis Annual Conference.

The elderly woman can't make repairs to her water-damaged home by herself,
and she has no children to help her. Her monthly income, a check for $565
from Social Security, won't buy materials or pay for labor.

"Miss Ruby fits the profile of the people we want to help," says Bob
Fritchey, Reelfoot's community services director.

Fritchey explained that Reelfoot is working with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture to provide safe, well-built homes. The USDA's Section 504 grant
program provides up to $7,500 for low-income, rural homeowners to modernize
or improve their homes.

Reelfoot has been assigned five of the grants. "The only stipulation to the
grant," Fritchey says, "is if they sell the house in three years, they have
to pay back the money. Otherwise, the grant is forgiven."

Reelfoot looks over applications for grants and determines their
eligibility. "Then we provide the labor using our volunteer work force. We
use the grant money for supplies and for professional labor when we need
special skills," Fritchey says.

In Miss Ruby's case, Fritchey is bringing in a work team on May 28 from
First United Methodist Church in Jackson, Tenn. Curtis Hudson, the church's
youth minister, says his Jackson First team will have at least 30 youth and
10 adults to work on the house. First Christian Church in nearby Alamo,
embarking on its first mission trip, is sending a team of 12 youth and three
adults to work with and learn from the United Methodists.

"We'll be there four days, working from dawn to dark," Hudson says. "During
that time, we expect to replace the roof, fix the rot underneath,
re-shingle, insulate and put siding on the house, re-wire, re-plumb, build a
bathroom from the ground up, provide new walls and ceilings in the kitchen,
bathroom and living room, paint everything we can paint, put in new light
fixtures, get her new or nearly new appliances, and put in some flower
beds."

Third-, fourth- and fifth-graders from the Jackson First will plant the
flowers.

The best part of the project, Hudson says, will be getting to know Miss
Ruby.

"Missions like these teach our young adults what it means to serve," he
says. "The people we help have the most amazing stories. These are people
just struggling to make it."

Fritchey says he has 61 applications from people in the area who need help.

"We hope to help most of them," he says. "So far in 2002, we've worked with
17. We'd love to have more adult work groups involved."

For her part, Miss Ruby says she loves Reelfoot. "And I'll be tickled about
my house."

More information on the Section 504 program is available from local and
state offices of USDA Rural Development or by going to www.rurdev.usda.gov
online.
# # #
*Farmer is director of communications for the Memphis (Tenn.) Annual
Conference of the United Methodist Church.

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United Methodist News Service
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