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Over the past two summers, about 150 volunteers from across the southeast have come to LaGrange on a mission to serve as part of their faith to help others and improve the homes of those in need by giving their time to do home repairs.

The group will be bigger this year. They’re looking to work on 24 homes with 250 volunteers. They plan to be in town from June 21 through June 28.

Students from middle school to college-aged, along with adult volunteers, will come to LaGrange to give their time and effort to help rehabilitate substandard housing through the nonprofit Mission Serve.  

Mission Serve is a national organization that partners with local city governments to help improve dilapidated housing by bringing together professional and student volunteers to provide free labor for homeowners. LaGrange first hosted the organization two decades ago, then known as World Changers, when volunteers rehabbed more than 100 homes at no cost to low-income homeowners.

During recent summers, the City of LaGrange has partnered with Mission Serve to provide Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to rehab 21 homes. The teens provided the labor, and the city and other donors provided the materials, which helped homeowners in need with renovations, including new roofs, exterior repairs, porch repair, and painting, among other much-needed repair work.  

Along the way, the group was supported by the faith community, like Western Heights Baptist Church, which will host all 250 volunteers this summer, along with countless other churches that will provide meals throughout the week.

On Tuesday, Circles Director Sherri Brown, on behalf of Mission Serve, asked the LaGrange City Council for additional funding for this year’s efforts.

Brown said all the houses chosen for repairs are referrals, and they have to be owner-occupied.

“We worked with the Housing Committee to identify some Thomas Town houses. We’re also looking at some in the Unity community. And we’ve gotten some referrals from Meals On Wheels for homes that really need it,” Brown said.

Brown said people with Mission Serve with professional construction experience will be coming to town soon to review the potential rehab homes. She explained that not only does there have to be a genuine need, but the work needs to be completeable within a week.

“I don’t pick the houses. I get the list and we’ll be driving around looking at the houses,” Brown said. “They have to be owner-occupied, and we only do exterior work.”

When questioned about homes that are occupied by children of deceased parents that have not been fully probated, Brown said they could work with them and suggested they seek help from her at her day job at Circles to help them resolve any home ownership problems.

Brown explained that they just don’t want to spend their efforts improving homes for landlords.

Councilman Nathan Gaskin suggested using homeowners’ utility information to single out seniors as potentially receiving the renovations. 

Brown said she would work with staff to do so, but noted that nearly all of the homes that receive the free repair work already belong to seniors.

Mission Serve is requesting $25,000 from the city for this year’s round of repairs. In the past, the money has come from CDBG funds, which can only be used for low-income housing work.