Work on home nearly finished

Work is nearly complete on a new home for a needy Hollywood family, but hundreds of similar projects still await attention and funding in the rural southern portion of Charleston County.

Rural Mission Inc. has enough cash and volunteers to finish its latest home and have the Smiley family move in by month's end, said Chris Brooks, the group's director of program development.

The three-bedroom house will replace the dilapidated mobile home Shirley and Harry Smiley bought in 1975 at the start of their marriage.

But the joy in finishing the project is tempered by the need that remains in the community, Brooks said. The nonprofit agency, which helps low-income and elderly families from Johns Island to Edisto, has seen requests for assistance more than double over the past 18 months.

Some 754 applications have been submitted for help with things like leaking roofs, collapsing porches and crumbling foundations, he said.

"All of these involve pretty substantial repairs or renovations," Brooks said.

Among the first candidates is a 76-year-old Johns Island woman who lives with her grandchildren in a house where the ceiling is falling in and the floor system is collapsing from termite damage and rot, Brooks said.

Rural Mission officials said they are grateful for the community's support in finishing the Smiley home and another house built for Henrietta Mack on Wadmalaw Island.

Donations through the "Homes for Christmas" project topped $30,000. Still, more is needed to carry on similar endeavors, they said.

Rural Mission has about $300,000 in its annual budget set aside for these "work camp" projects, but the organization needs about twice that amount, said Linda Gadson, the mission's executive director.

The organization rehabilitated 71 substandard homes last year, but officials would prefer to get that number up to 100 annually to keep pace with the demand, Brooks said.

"People are struggling in these old houses," Gadson said. "And here we are again, at the point of being overwhelmed by needs."

Rural Mission, which has a staff of four, also is struggling to raise money to meet its operational costs, which run about $25,000 a month, Gadson said. Like many nonprofits, Rural Mission has seen donations drop off in the sour economy. The group's board of directors will hold a special session next week to contemplate ways to make ends meet, she said.

"We believe in the power of prayer," she said. "We've always struggled at Rural Mission, but God always sees us through."

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.