Statements
Mission
Westminster Home Connection, a nonprofit construction agency, serves older adults and persons with disabilities whose homes have become unsafe places to live, due to issues of function or mobility. Our low-cost improvements give homeowners a way to remain in the home they love and in the communities where they've built their lives.
Our work preserves affordable housing. Over 50% of existing housing units in middle Tennessee are single unit homes lived in by the homeowner. Preserving these homes is key to affordable housing. Westminster repairs several hundred houses a year, making them safer, more functional, and more likely to be preserved.
Our clients on average are 71 years old with a median monthly household income of less than $2,000. Two-thirds are female and 55% are persons of color.
Solve a crisis with us: As home prices and construction costs continue to soar, Middle Tennessee will never be able to build its way out of the affordable housing crisis. The Westminster Home Connection model preserves the affordability of existing homes at a nominal cost by ensuring they're livable for the current homeowners.
Give relief with us: We give clients a path to age in place safely and with dignity.
Serving Middle Tennesseans in seven counties, our construction teams resolve safety, mobility, and functionality issues, including step-in bathtubs, wheelchair ramps, electrical issues, and leaky pipes, that might otherwise cause homeowners to be forced to leave their homes.
Make an impact with us: We provide a replicable service model to interested partners.
Every community has members in need of critical home repairs and mobility modifications. Let us help you help them. Our model allows for service offerings to be expanded over time as the capacity and skill of your team increases, eventually including a comprehensive home assessment process to prioritize repair needs.
Background
Westminster provides much needed home repairs and mobility modifications to empower older adults and persons with disabilities to age-in-place. Our staff is one of our major strengths. Westminster is a licensed home improvement contractor. We have eight employees: an Executive Director, an Office Manager, a Construction Superintendent, four Construction Technicians and a part-time Intake Coordinator. Our employees and dedicated volunteers do most of the construction work, except for new roofs and HVACs, which require subcontractors.
Most clients come to us through referrals from one of our 22 health care or social service referral agencies. Most of Westminster's referrals and applicants have multiple needs in addition to home repairs. Westminster's referral partners continue to expand as we aim to work with those with the greatest needs.
Each client reports their desired repairs and modifications to their case manager, who submits a two-page application to Westminster. The application includes client name, address, contact information, income, age, number of people in the home, description of known needed repairs or mobility modifications, and any other considerations. The client then meets at their home with the Westminster construction assessor to walk throughout the home and determine the scope of work and most appropriate construction approach. The client approves the work to be done at their home before work begins. We assign staff, volunteers and subcontractors to complete the necessary repairs. On average, homes require seven to eight repairs and/or mobility modifications.
In summary, Westminster addresses issues impacting each person's ability to age-in-place and preserve their home in the affordable housing stock. We prioritize the most critical repairs, mobility modifications and declutter services needed to make each home safer and more functional, according to the needs of the individual. Since 2013, Westminster has empowered over 3,000 people living in more than 2,000 homes.
Impact
Westminster Home Connection's focus is critical home repairs and modifications to promote aging-in-place and preserve affordable housing.
2022 Accomplishments:
• Repaired or modified 228 homes for 359 people.
• Completed year one and updated key strategies of our strategic plan developed in 2021.
• Substantially completed our March 2020 tornado recovery repair program.
In 2023, we plan to repair or modify 240 homes for 360 or more people. Our other 2023 Goals are based on our strategic plan:
• Promoting Our Mission: We will raise community-wide awareness that repairs and modifications are a key, common-sense approach to aging-in-place and preserving affordable housing. In 2022, working with a consultant we developed a strategic communications plan. Implementing our communications plan is a major goal in 2023.
• Strengthening Our Infrastructure: As of February 2023, we successfully hired our last open position. In 2023, our focus is on cross-training our construction and administrative staff, career development, and succession planning. We have written procedures for most of our activities. These procedures and cross-training will ensure consistency and stability in our operations.
• Expanding Our Reach: In 2023, we plan to develop two new groups in a neighbor-helping-neighbor approach to critical repairs and mobility modifications. We know different groups have different skills, interests, and abilities. Some want to join a supervised project led by an experienced leader. Others want clients referred to them and then do all the construction work themselves. An existing group may have excess capacity and we can escalate our collective impact by sending them as many referrals as they can handle. The key is to establish excited, committed people in each group with a passion for preserving affordable housing and empowering older adults and persons with disabilities to age-in-place. This builds organic, sustainable construction capacity and expands awareness of repairs as a solution for preserving affordable housing.
• Increasing and Diversifying Our Funding: With ~$200,000 of annual funding coming to an end at the completion of a one-time, multi-year grant, by necessity in 2023, we have had to increase and diversify funding from other sources. By the end of 2022, our board had already raised an additional $125,000 from individuals for critical home repairs for 2023. We are applying for the remaining funds as 2023 grant application opportunities open. In previous years our board established and funded an operating reserve fund, which will support 2023 operations in the event we cannot immediately raise the remaining funding. Westminster is a responsible and stable organization, with a strong track record of strategic planning and execution.
Needs
You can support us by helping increase awareness that making affordable repairs is a leading solution to both aging-in-place and the affordable housing crisis.
Most of today's affordable housing discussion is about building new units. Because Westminster is so embedded in repairing homes, we assumed everyone understands the impact of preserving existing units. The reality is that this is not true.
Most people would assume that everyone can and should simply repair their own homes. However, Westminster's average client is 71 years old, has lived on Social Security for six or more years, with a median monthly household income of less than $2,000, and has lived in their house for 30 years. Understandably, they must pay for food, medicine, and utilities before maintenance and repairs. Over time, the house deteriorates from lack of repairs, which become more costly and further out of reach for the homeowner to complete. Our cost of making an existing house safe and functional is <1% of the cost of building a new unit. Aging-in-place and preservation of affordable housing are interconnected.
Tell your friends, community leaders and others the value of preservation of our existing housing stock. Westminster has a common-sense approach that works.
CEO Statement
A little more than 10 years ago, in the wake of the devastating Nashville flood, a group of people in a faith community saw a need for home improvements among older adults in their congregation…so they rolled up their sleeves and got to work. As that initial group fixed and modified more and more homes, they realized this need went far beyond the handful of individuals in their own community: Safely aging in place and remaining in the home and community where you've built your life is a near universal desire, but for many, it can be financially out of reach.
If you have followed the story of Westminster Home Connection, you know that a decade into this work, we now serve an average of 350 people per year, and the referrals for our services never dry up. We provide a practical and cost-effective solution to a problem that most people have either helped a friend or relative through, or faced themselves.
As we have honed our model and seen the need for home preservation for older adults and persons with disabilities continue to grow, as an organization, we have moved into the next phase of our mission, which is to spread the word and help other community leaders launch similar efforts in their own neighborhoods.
We believe in this work, and we want to play a role in solving this affordable housing crisis for our neighbors. As home prices and construction costs continue to soar, Middle Tennessee will never be able to build its way out of the affordable housing crisis. The Westminster Home Connection model preserves the affordability of existing homes owned by older adults and persons with disabilities by ensuring they remain livable. Maintaining these homes preserves valuable affordable housing for far less money than building entirely new homes.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Housing, Shelter - Home Improvements/Repairs |
| Secondary Category: | Health Care - Patient & Family Support |
| Tertiary Category: | - |
Areas Served
Westminster provides direct repairs and modifications to residents in 7 Tennessee counties: Cheatham, Davidson, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson.
Westminster is also available to share our replicable service model to interested partners throughout Tennessee and the nation. Our model allows for service offerings to be expanded over time as the capacity and skill of your team increases.
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Cheatham |
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Robertson |
| TN - Sumner |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Wilson |
