Eddie Hawkins’ Story – Emergency Home Repair

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My name is Eddie Hawkins. The Emergency Home Repair Program has given me access to my house, which I never thought was possible. I got a flyer from Mountain Housing Opportunities in the mail and I thought, you know what, I’d give it a shot. You got nothing to lose. Give it a try. Next thing I know, they were contacting me, Mountain Housing Opportunities was, saying, “Hey, we can do some things for you.” The reason I’m in a wheel chair is I had a car pull out in front of me on my motorcycle. That’s been about 20 or 21 years ago. I’ve had struggles learning to re-do things and learning to live again, but we’ve gotten through it thanks to good people in this world. I live with my brother. My mom lives close by, so she comes over and helps me out with certain things around the house. My ramp was just way too steep. When I was first injured, the people that built it didn’t know about codes and things like that. Over the course of the 18 or 19 years, I would drag myself a few feet with the railing and then grab the railing and drag some more. That’s not good for your shoulders. I can tell you that. Mountain Housing Opportunities called me and set up an appointment for someone to come out and look at the ramp and see that it was clearly not safe. As soon as that happened, the paperwork was started. They were on it. Once they started construction, the ramp only took about two days to finish. I was just blown away at how quickly things were going. It’s helped me out immensely. Even my mom when she comes over uses the new ramp just because it’s even easier for her to get up and down. It’s just been amazing in how quickly they had it done and just the quality of work was just amazing. I mean, I want to take a photo of this and hang it on my wall. It’s just beautiful.