ESVA Housing Mission Inc.

Grant Awarded: $33,000 to Purchase and Equip Two Construction Trailers

ESVA Housing Mission was formed in 2024 to combat poverty housing and provide critical repairs to homes of people in need for both Accomack and Northampton Counties, two of the three most poverty-stricken counties on the Delmarva Peninsula. The poverty housing rate for Northampton is 17.6% and that of Accomack is 16.2%. The most common cause of injury and sometimes death for those over 65 is falls; and many of those are from unsafe stairs and railings.

ESVA Housing Mission receives referrals from partner agencies, including Riverside Hospital and ES Rural Health, to perform critical home repairs for applicants living below the poverty level. These repairs focus first on preventing falls and allowing safe ingress and egress from the home, then also on making their homes warmer, safer and drier.

Teams of volunteers are critical to the strategy, with ESVA Housing Mission key personnel overseeing and coordinating with volunteer groups of 12-16 persons from local businesses, churches and other community volunteer organizations. Each project is staffed by volunteer teams and supervised by ESVA Housing Mission Construction Team members. During the last four months of 2024, the group completed 5 Critical Home Repairs; the goal is to complete 15-20 projects in 2025.

 The primary capital need was to purchase two construction trailers and the accompanying tools and equipment to facilitate the building projects. Having a proper, dependable trailer and tools is key to recruiting volunteers providing the necessary labor.

In Spring 2025, ESVCF approved a grant of $33,000 to purchase and equip two construction trailers to support the projects.

Summer 2025 Project Update: Up until the late spring, ESVA Housing Mission was completing projects with borrowed trailers and tools which made the work of the volunteers much harder. In 2025, the ESVA Housing Mission has already completed 12 projects, with 12 still on backlog. Most clients will wait for 4-6 months for help to arrive.

The first trailer purchase almost doubled the size of the borrowed one they were using and makes it much easier to store tools and keep the volunteers focused on the job of “helping their neighbors”. The organization plans to add another trailer and a full set of tools as they grow the scope of their work.