City seeks help to address needs

For the past seven years the city of Mesquite partners with the Mesquite Ministerial Alliance for Addressing Mesquite Day. Addressing Mesquite Day is a joint project where volunteers go around the city and do minor repairs to many homes of those that cannot do the work themselves due to physical or financial limitations.

“This is a joint effort between the city and the ministerial alliance to combat the need for home help and repairs,” said Dana Dotson, who coordinates the event for the city. “This is a way for us to assist low income and elderly people.”

The city is currently recruiting volunteers of various skill levels for this year’s Addressing Mesquite Day.

“Most of our volunteers generally come from the churches. We do have a number of corporate sponsors that help with donations to cover the cost of materials for the event which is usually $15,000 to $20,000,” Dotson said.

Dotson said the city accepts all volunteers and assigns them a task depending on their skill level. Last year the city helped with repairs to 83 homes.

“The more extensive jobs are given to the more skilled volunteers,” Dotson said. “Sometimes we have houses where the painting job is more extensive because there are boards on the home that need to be replaced. Most of the jobs involve cleaning out debris or yard work.”

She said the city will begin a big push for volunteers in August when the mayor sends out a letter to groups that participated before to invite them to come participate again.

“He usually sends the letter to churches and other organizations asking for volunteers,” Dotson said.

She added that the city uses the response it gets from volunteers committing to put the work in to determine how many homes it can select from those that apply. The more people that volunteer the more homeowners the group can assist.

“The process begins when each homeowner submits an application for assistance. The city then sends a building inspector to the house to assess what needs to be done,” Dotson said.

The applications are scored based on those homes most in need of assistance. There are extra points given to applications involving elderly, disabled or single parent homes.

“Those applications with the most points are looked at first,” Dotson said.

The application will only be accepted if the home is owner-occupied.

Dotson said the goal of the event is to improve the visibility and appearance of the city’s neighborhoods while helping those less fortunate.

“We get a lot of letters after the fact thanking us for helping them,” Dotson said. “A lot of people want their property to look good but some don’t have the financial or physical means. This has been a great program.”

For information on Addressing Mesquite Day, visit the city’s website at www.cityofmesquite.com/amd.

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