For poor people, especially poor elderly people, the cost of a new roof is beyond them. The whole house can fail if a hole in the roof is left unattended.

All it takes is one 18-inch-by-18-inch hole in the roof of a house to allow in the elements and bring the structure down in about a decade. A smaller hole will cause havoc as well.

Leaking roofs create one or more of these issues:

  • The wood sheathing under the roof tile can rot. This will lead to the 18-inch-by-18-inch hole that will ruin the house.
  • The wooden roof rafters can rot, causing the roof to collapse.
  • Water can get trapped in insulation or other porous material and cause rot inside the house.
  • Water can get trapped in insulation or other porous material and cause mold inside the house.
  • Water can get trapped in living areas. It won’t dry out quickly from walls or ceiling plaster. This leads to dripping ceilings and falling plaster.
  • If water gets trapped in living areas, it won’t dry out quickly from walls or ceiling plaster. This leads to a pandemic mold issue, making a house uninhabitable.

For poor people, it makes every rain a cause for trepidation. If they cannot repair it, how long can they live there? If the cannot repair it, who would buy it? Here’s a musical interlude, Don’t Let the Rain Come Down. And now a happy story for Labor Day.

Wonderful things happen in communities, sometimes by accident. In North Carolina, a minister who is also a roofer gave classes to encourage people who wanted a career as a roofer. He thinks it is a good job to have and more people should consider learning how.

At one class, the only people who came were a handful of middle-aged women. They did a roof with the teacher; they had a blast doing it together. They decided to become a collective that repairs roofs of people who can’t pay to do it. They are up to 113 roofs when this video was made. (link)