Home Modifications Advisory Committee Grows in 2025

FY 2025 was a very successful year for Paraquad’s Home Modifications Advisory Committee. We began making huge strides by building a collaborative program with Gateway Housing Service Project. The purpose of the collaboration was to increase response time when reaching out to our referrals, collect data on that initial call, streamline the home assessment process, and work together to plan and finance many projects. We have learned a lot about our individual programs and where there are gaps in meeting the accessibility needs of our community. These gaps are a focus for us as we continue to work together.

We have also been working with Matthew Holden from the City of St. Louis Department of Health, who has been helping us interpret the data, to present a clearer picture to our potential funders of the accessibility needs our neighbors face.

The number of referrals continues to increase month to month, with several months more than doubling the number of referrals compared to the early stages. In FY 2025, we received over 200 referrals. Of those, 145 individuals became intake consumers—they are either on our waitlist, or their projects have been completed. We have an additional 51 participants whose home visits have been scheduled, and they will most likely be added to the waitlist.

What exactly have we done in FY 2025?

• Ramp installations: 27

• Grab bar installations: 14

• DME purchased through grant funds (provided and participants trained on safe use): 27

• Reuse DME from our reuse program (provided and participants trained): 17

• Home Depot projects completed (including completion of projects started in previous years): 13 — and yes, Pevely was finally completed!

• Home modifications (small projects such as swing-away hinges, removing door stops to increase space, providing handheld showers, and other items): 20

Volunteer Shout Outs

Kevin Jackson of JSton Homes started volunteering with Paraquad in November 2024, launching our “Grab Bar Wednesdays.” He also assists with ramp installations and transports ramps from Paraquad to their new homes. Gordon Raney, a retired engineer, helps with ramp installations and anything else I may ask of him! Larry Ball, Ron Livaudais, Steve Moore, and David Moore assist with grab bar installations, picking up and relocating donated ramps, and handrail installations. Nothing that Paraquad has accomplished—and continues to do—can be done without these dedicated volunteers!

Corporate Shout Outs

We have also had the opportunity to work with Wells Fargo, Bayer, RGA, and Home Depot. These corporate sponsors have provided funding as well as manual labor to complete many ramp installations. We continue to build these relationships and already have some ramp builds planned with them for FY 2026. These corporate sponsors are amazing, and I am so grateful to work with them. I look forward to developing more relationships like these as the program continues to grow in 2026.