Director Eric Wilbur said the main goal of the organization is to help homeowners who are unable to maintain their homes.
“We recognized that in our community, we have a lot of folks that are elderly, widowed, disabled or they can’t maintain their homes for whatever reason,” he said.
Key players
The organization began as a group of churches that works alongside the city of Schertz to identify homes in need of minor maintenance and repair.
“The city doesn’t have the resources to help people, and churches alone can’t really do it without some level of support from the city,” Wilbur said.
Local businesses and other organizations will sponsor the nonprofit, assisting with providing equipment or other needs.
While the organization is mostly focused on Schertz homeowners, they do provide services to nearby areas outside of the city. Wilbur said around 90% of the work is in Schertz, and the other 10% is around the outlying areas.
Get involved
Twice a year, the organization hosts large events for volunteers to help homeowners in need, with the most recent event being April 20.
Wilbur said the event helped around 40 families and had a turnout of around 250 volunteers. On average, the organization helps 130-150 people each year.
Prior to the big events, the organization will go out to neighborhoods in the city to look for homes that might need assistance.
When a house is found, organization members put a flyer on the door with information about the nonprofit.
Wilbur said this process is how the organization gets most of the people that they assist. Outside of this method, people in need can contact the organization through social media pages and the website. Inspectors from the city of Schertz will also reach out to the organization with referrals.
For those looking to volunteer with the organization, information can be found on the website.
While the organization focuses on minor home maintenance projects, Wilbur said the goal is to learn more about helping with major maintenance projects, such as roofing replacement.
“We get into situations where someone needs help with a full roof replacement, but we don’t have that capability both financially and with our volunteers,” he said.
Wilbur said he is having conversations with other municipalities and groups around the area that may be interested in starting a Love Where You Live in their cities to help grow the interest in helping homeowners throughout the area.
The focus for now is on neighborhoods and communities where the homes might be older, since those homes are more likely to have maintenance issues.
“The people that we are helping in these neighborhoods are many times overlooked, or they’re isolated or just silent about what they are having to deal with,” he said. “This is our opportunity as a community to come around them and help them.”
