Oakland County Senior Chore Program shows that it pays to ask for help

For some seniors, the guide labor required to correctly full out of doors chores may be harmful, main them to rent corporations for duties comparable to tree removing and garden upkeep.

However what occurs if you cannot afford such companies? You both try the chore till you encounter unlucky penalties, otherwise you go away the chores alone whereas they develop and fester.

However now there’s another choice for these residing in Oakland County.

In July 2024, Oakland Livingston Human Service Company launched the Oakland County Senior Chore Program to serve native seniors in want. Oakland County’s pilot program is funded by the county’s American Rescue Plan Act {dollars}.

This system consists of companies comparable to garden mowing, leaf raking, tree removing, shrub pruning, gutter cleansing and snow blowing.

Though every metropolis operates the service independently, the important thing qualification necessities are the identical for all: they need to reside in a collaborating neighborhood, be at the least 62 years previous, and earn lower than 80% of gross family earnings. (See the connected chart for greenback quantities based mostly in your family dimension.)

In accordance with the newest obtainable statistics, this system served 759 households and 945 folks in August.

There are at the moment 19 communities collaborating in this system: Auburn Hills, Bingham Farms, Bloomfield Township, Clawson, Ferndale, Franklin, Hazel Park, Holly, Madison Heights, Oak Park, Orion Township, Pontiac, Rochester Hills, Rose Township, Royal Oak, Royal Oak Township, Southfield, Troy and Waterford.

It’s a pilot program funded via July 30, 2026. After that, every neighborhood should determine whether or not they need to proceed providing the companies. Some neighborhood leaders have already indicated they need to preserve this system, stated Marie Verheyen, program supervisor at OLHSA.

“I do know Clawson specifically hopes to proceed this system,” she stated. “They’re what they’ll do to maintain it going as they’ve had such a optimistic outcome. Hazel Park has additionally had a really optimistic programme.”

Whereas OLHSA gives a wide range of assets and connections to implement this system, comparable to dependable contractors that the company has used prior to now, communities can rent different contractors to get the work completed, giving native small enterprise homeowners the chance to make a reputation for themselves inside their neighborhood.

“There was a younger man who needed to start out a landscaping enterprise in Royal Oak Township,” Verheyen stated. “With this program we have been capable of assist him begin his personal enterprise. The seniors all love him as a result of they acknowledge him from throughout city. Final summer time he did the garden mowing and snow blowing, so they’re very pleased with him.”

One of many program’s many success tales occurred in Franklin, the place an aged lady’s garden was remodeled from a junkyard to an everyday entrance yard.

“We eliminated 90 cubic yards of particles from her yard,” stated Don Volgrin, code enforcement officer. “She had accrued a whole lot of stuff in her backyard. It wasn’t even actually a upkeep program; as a lot because it was, the backyard was full and wanted consideration. She did not have the assets to try this, so we stepped in and did it for her, along with her permission.”

This system not solely immediately advantages the protection of seniors when coming into and leaving their properties, but additionally will increase the willingness of postal staff and supply companies to go to.

“With bush pruning, (seniors) know that nobody will attempt to ambush them on the best way to and from their home as a result of, as a result of there are a whole lot of bushes, somebody can conceal there and be able to seize them,” Verheyen stated. “It’s now safer if they’ve Meals on Wheels delivered, or if the postman delivers the mail to their house, as a result of typically if the bushes are too dangerous, the postman won’t ship their mail.”

For extra data, together with particular contacts for every of the collaborating communities, go to https://www.olhsa.org/en-us/chore.