About Us > A Brief History of Operation Home
History | Staff & Board | Partners

Founded in 1997, Operation Home’s mission is to provide safety, handicapped access and dignity to our neediest neighbors in Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester Counties. Operation Home does this primarily through the provision of emergency home repairs such as roof replacement, wheelchair ramps, floor reparations, and many types of other jobs necessary to prevent homelessness and keep our most vulnerable citizens in homes that are safe and decent.

In 2007, Operation Home assisted over 140 families referred from over 20 different agencies:

• 35 homes were provided critical home repairs
• 60 air conditioning units were provided to families who otherwise would have suffered through a hot, Lowcountry summer without anything to cool their home
• 46 heaters were provided to families who had no way to heat their homes during the coldest days of the winter. Most of these families contained a child or elderly family member.

The need for the services that Operation Home provides has not gone away. In 2008 we will answer the call of over 150 families in need, from over 25 social service organizations.

Here are a couple stories of families who have been assisted by Operation Home this year:

• Two sisters living in Awendaw in a trailer in desperate need of floor repairs. We also learned that these two women needed a septic tank, as they were flushing, bathing, and cooking with bottled water from a well that they haul in from a the backyard. Within 12 days of the referral, Operation Home provided the sisters a new septic tank, hot running water, a safe floor, and a place that feels like home.
• A woman who is deaf and wheelchair bound was unable to access the bathroom in her home in Charleston. Within a month, Operation Home granted this woman accessibility to her bathroom by providing an area where she can wheel to the toilet and a sink and bathing area that are outfitted with safety rails.

To date in 2008, Operation Home has assisted over 50 families, with the total amount of assistance totaling over $95,000.