Transportable units built for needy elderly residents

An Elderly Transportable unit, a house on wheels for poor, elderly residents in South Carolina, is nearly complete after about three months of construction.

First United Methodist Church on the Isle of Palms, which started the project Jan. 10, will donate the unit to the United Methodist Relief Center in Mount Pleasant.

Pat Neeley of First United Methodist expects the unit to be completed just in time for a barbecue scheduled to be held today to celebrate the effort.

The units built for the relief center go to needy elderly residents in South Carolina, with the primary focus in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties. Each unit provides housing for someone who has an insufficient, damaged or destroyed home. When the resident no longer needs the unit, the relief center refurbishes the house and transports it to the next person on the list.

"Because many of these units are built on church sites, we not only get a lot of volunteers but also plenty of donations," said Pat Goss, director of the relief center.

The approximate cost to build a unit is $30,000, and the appraised value is about $62,000, according to Goss.

Goss said that in building these units, people have become more aware in the conditions in which some of the state's elderly poor live.

The average age of the recipients is between 82 and 85, and 95 percent of recipients live below the median income level.

Goss said about 25 people are on the waiting list for a home right now. "It's amazing how much people's lives lengthen with decent housing," she said.