HAMMERS, Davidson Housing Coalition's emergency home repair program, opens this blog to track the progress of a particularly special home repair project. HAMMERS has teamed with local companies JCB Urban and Saussy Burbank to conduct significant repairs of a home in Davidson, which, without these businesses' contributions, the program would not have the means to address.

Please take a moment to learn more about this undertaking. Updates will be made daily.

To begin, the following provides background on HAMMERS. In 2005, DHC launched the HAMMERS program in partnership with Davidson College to address a growing concern about the prevalence of substandard housing in the Lake Norman region. HAMMERS, Hands Around Mecklenburg/Mooresville Making Emergency Repairs Safely, provides emergency repars on homes of low-income homeowners living in the towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, and Mooresville. Priorities for repair services are people with special needs such as the elderly, disabled, single parents, or households with five or more inhabitants including children. REgular emergency repairs including building wheelchair ramps, repairing fotten flooring or ceilings, and patching or re-roofing a home.

To qualify, homeowners must earn less than 80% of the area median income, approximately $53,200 for a family of four in Mecklenburg County or $47,900 for a family of four in Iredell County. These income restrictions are based on the 2009 HOusing and Urban Development Income Guidelines for Mecklenburg and Iredell Counties. As a whole, HAMMERS aims to preserve existing affordable housing through the completion of such emergency home repairs.