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Let us tell you a quick story about this person. We will call her Ms. Owens. She is a real person who has worked hard all her life and is still working hard by volunteering in a women’s shelter and participating on other activities important to her. All this work is being done to help people who, through no fault of their own, have fallen on hard times. In some cases many are here through their own fault. But an unwanted pregnancy does not negate a heart beat & a life. To help these women, who have no support, charities like “women’s shelter” are a GOD sent. More importantly are the volunteers that “man” these shelters. Ms. Owens is one, although disabled.

To cut to the chase HPLA was contacted because Ms. Owens porch was getting rotten right at the front entry. Secondly the concrete stairs leading up to the front door had deteriorated and were slopping. The rise & run of the concrete stairs were not up to code so varied seriously. This created a problem, as getting around on a flat surface was getting difficult for Ms. Owens and climbing slippery and uneven stairs a hazard. The possibility of falling through the porch floor was a reality.

The solution was to re-enforce the floor joist of the porch & bridge the old concrete steps with a wooden deck. Pictures have been added to this post to see the progress of this project and the fantastic engineering that went into providing a stable and safe entryway for this needy but deserving rock of this community.

We need a few more donations to complete this project. So will you please donate a few dollars to help. HPLA has donated all the labor for this project as well as some of the cost for materials. We just need a little help from you for more lumber and screws.

As we approach Easter we are reminded that Jesus died for our sins, arose from the dead and gives us life everlasting by accepting him. We can pay this gift forward, while here on earth, by being a good Samaritan and helping those folks that are hurting and needing a leg up.

We also need to be sure Ms. Owens can keep doing her work. People in need helping people in need. What a great concept.

Please share this work with your friends & family. We desperately need volunteers too. Please call us.

God Bless You.

As this years NCAA college basketball tournaments have narrowed down to the final four  it is not surprising to see some teams in the running. What is great is that there are teams in the running  that no one could imagine would be here. South Carolina. WHAT???? Oregon Ducks , really? The University of Kansas let a lot of folks down here in Kansas but, there is no doubt that Oregon and South Carolina earned the opportunity to win it all.  I love basketball at this stage of the annual competition. It is amazing to start a project and work hard to end up with a successful program or a successful project.

At HPLA we work hard everyday to win. We do that by providing a hand out and leg up up to folks who might not ever have an opportunity to win.

We service low income homeowners who, through “no fault of their own”  have become victims of their own environment. Today I saw Yolanda. She bought her own house. Her first. She maintained it as best she could. But the house next door has impinged on her by allowing a tree on their property to grow so big it has  damaged her house. That other property has now been abandoned by its owners. She is upside down on her maintenance cost and will lose everything to move. What the “Heck?”. How does this happen? “There is a sucker born every minute.”

A reasonable buyer or reasonable real estate agent representing the seller should have never let this deal go through. The property should have been condemned to start but Yolanda is doomed.

So the tenant (Yolanda) is having to survive due to lack of resources to move forward. Habitaciones Para Latinos Association  is trying to help. We are applying band aids to keep the house livable and yet advising the tenet to get out asap. Rain is coming in and the supporting walls are suspect. The foundation is deteriorating. The property is losing value. Any investment in the property is to pour money into a bottomless pit with no chance to recover. What can be done to save bankruptcy.   Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Best case is to try and buy time and live in the house. HPLA will patch the roof. We will shore up the foundation and we will advise the client to get out asap. YOUR DONATIONS BUY THESE FOLKS TIME.

Please give. Hit the donate button now. One dollar does amazing things when coupled with a hundred other DONATED dollars.

No donation goes to do anything but help the needy. No overhead is paid for with your donation. Only direct benefits to clients who qualify will benefit from your donation..

March is here and with it comes a peek of spring for a large part of the country. Then there is college basketball, baseball, sunshine & flowers. It is an opportunity to get out and enjoy what God provided us to cultivate. The down side is there are those folks who have reached a point in life where getting around have become a challenge and a burden. Recently HPLA provided a new kitchen faucet for a sweet lady that can hardly move out of her chair much less climb stairs or go shopping. Life for her is the interior of her home and a brief time on her front porch. For her, having a functioning gas, water & electrical system in her home is a must. Secondly, income verses expenses are out of balance and medical expenses continue to increase.

This country has   done a tremendous job of caring for the elderly and those born with issues which prevent them from contributing financially for their care. While picking up part of the slack, the generosity of the American people falls short as does the entitlement programs designed to help these folks in need. Charitable organizations are abundant and volunteers have eased the burden considerably to deter bankruptcy for these folks. (Bankruptcy would exacerbate the problem and not solve anything).

A better answer is to keep these folks in their homes as long as possible and help them survive as comfortably as possible. At HPLA (Habitaciones Para Latinos Association) our volunteers contribute hundreds of hours every month to perpetuate this idea. Like any charity, we too need help to survive. Our volunteers cannot afford the cost of the building materials and supplies necessary to provide the fixes for these folks. So we are asking you, the general public, to help. Why is HPLA so worthy of your gifts? The answer is that your gifts go directly to buy supplies and materials and does not go to salaries or operating expenses which HPLA incurs. We work very hard to get grants for that purpose from organizations which receive federal and state funds. We also rely on organizations (i.e. churches, businesses, other charities) to help pick up operational expenses. And we sacrifice personally too. Will you donate one small gift of $10.00.

I pray that you will and pray you will be blessed for it. Happy Spring 2017. Sincerely HPLA

As Habitaciones Para Latinos Association completes its first year in existence we can proudly confess to you that the work that has been accomplished this year has been nothing short of miraculous. Not to say we are totally responsible for our success but conversely to confess that we would have fallen a ways short of our hopes and dreams in our first year had it not been for some extremely generous and loving people.

For the sake of not giving out private information of those we have helped or those that helped us succeed,  suffice it to say we would love to shout from the mountain tops the names of those who donated time and money so we could attain our success. There is one company who I know does not mind being called out and that is D&R Services, Inc. http://www.mexicancandy.com . They are responsible for our existence and currently provide a considerable amount of resources for HPLA.

So this year started out slowly with our focus of helping Latino families in the Kansas City Kansas and the Wyandotte County area where Kansas City serves as the market center. It was our great fortune to find some fantastic agencies and the folks who manage those agencies. Suffice it to say that other charities working to help people in this area were our greatest allies. But, as we moved forward it was evident that the Latino community has worked hard and are doing a wonderful job of taking care of themselves and their neighbors. We continue to publish our services to that community but have discovered that the population has shifted and today there is a basic equal split between White Americans, African American, Mexican American/Latinos along with the Asians and all other cultures grouped into the final 25%. Yes, it is interesting to see this balance of demographics in Kansas City, Kansas. But, bottom line, there is an equal need for help. Not surprising, the Asian community are a great testimony of what hard work and self denial can do to make life satisfying and we have not had any request from that group yet.

To that point Habitaciones Para Latinos Association has amended it’s bi-laws to suggest that the organization not discriminate by focusing on the Latino community but will assist all nationalities and all cultures on a first come first serve bases. Re-naming the organization is not an option at this time so the acronym HPLA will be used extensively.

The application process with HPLA is very simple and begins with two vital qualifications. The recipients must own their own home and secondly must fall below the HUD [Housing for Urban Development] established low income level for individuals or families. Habitaciones Para Latinos Association is dedicated to assisting low income home owners with minor home repairs which, through no fault of their own, are not able to complete the projects themselves. We have also been able to and will help some folks who where doing very well but have fallen on hard times. These folks are asked to please pay it forward when they recover or to donate back to our charity as they recover to help perpetuate HPLA. We have seen this demonstrated already and praise these wonderful people.

For 2017 we have much work to do. Establishing a formal board of directors that will help establish the Associations goals and budget for the new year will have a high priority. Secondly, writing more grants and getting continuing and perpetual help for the mission of HPLA  will be just as high a priority. Our hope is to hire a full time director which is experienced in home repair and can start part time as a volunteer. As funds allow that position will grow into a full time paid position but only after foundation or corporate support is acquired. All donations from individuals will not be used for any other purpose but to directly benefit the families in need. I invite you all to follow us on Facebook as, almost daily, reports of our projects and our needs are published. Finally, the volunteers who have come to offer advise, labor, materials, tools and lots of time are the backbone of any charity and we want to thank each one of them form the bottom of our hearts. God Bless You. A very special thank you to one we call Adan. Every organization has an Adan that understands the system and makes it click. We are blessed to have one too.

May Gods blessings be with each one of you who have taken time to read this blog and know that we will do our best to start providing valuable information that may be beneficial to you going forward and not just a timeline of our projects. It is difficult in that we rely on you tube and the internet to learn ourselves. We will try to bring something different and of value from our prospective knowing there is so much wonderful stuff already out there.

Need a last minute contribution source for a 2016 tax write-off call us. We can help 913-269-4450

Sincerely,

Bob Flores

Chairmen of HPLA

 

 

As the thanksgiving week comes to an end and the thrill of “Black Friday” bargains are in the rear view mirror our attention can turn on the last remaining days of the holiday season and on to escorting 2016 into it’s final sunset and on to the final stroke at midnight which will usher in 2017.

Celebration is a wonderful thing and it is interesting to ask, “what do you have to be thankful for and which joyful time will you celebrate the most?” The coming celebration of Christ’s birth is the reason for the season!!! Will you be celebrating that event?

There are millions of things to be grateful and thankful for and for everyone there has to be something good to celebrate. Being alive has my vote and the ability to see & hear all that is going on in this world today is another. Cognitive.

In our business of giving it is the gratitude and celebrating we get credit for providing that we give thanks for. Experiencing our fellow citizens shedding tears over the repair of a broken faucet or leaking roof. We get the hugs and the thanks because we are the ones that do the actual work. For each of you who have volunteered you know that feeling. You know the sacrifice you made to see this joy. I am sure there are scenes which would far exceed the joy these folks feel. Seeing the birth of your first child, having a loved one come home from a dangerous journey, living a full life after being told you only had months to live but joy has no degree exactly. It is variable at best but if joy and sadness started in the middle joy would go positively higher and sadness would go negatively lower.

There may be some joy in being consistently sad I guess. However that model does not fit in this example. In our experiences we see an increase in happiness as a result of our work. If you haven’t read our home page I invite you to please do so. The key point of our giving is to help people who are truly hurting through no fault of their own. In some cases that gets to be a slippery slope but we learn and we grow and we try to make a difference in that someone may turn their lives around because of our generosity even if they did not deserve it.

I want to make it very clear that all the labor we can recruit and all the strength that we can muster is in vain unless we have donors who provide the parts, supplies and materials we need to compete the repair. That is where you come in. Your gifts of money is what buys those resources and gives us the opportunity to receive all the praise. We encourage your gift of time and do need it as desperately as money at times. The need for skilled craftsmen in all the building trades is tremendous and just common labors willing to do some pulling and toting is of great support for us.  We have our tools provided by sponsors who give these resources freely as we give our labor. Habitaciones Para Latinos Association started helping poor Latinos but has found that there are more poor people than just latinos so we do not discriminate. Instead those who come first are helped first. If a dire emergency arises these folks have always been willing to wait until we can back to them or some other volunteers can be recruited. That brings us joy too. We will never run out of work although we do pray GOD would put us out of business due to the lack of needy people.

In this season of giving we encourage each of you to consider a small donation for HPLA. We are currently working as funds become available and do not want to stop due to lack of funds. Find the donate button on our banner and remember that no salaries or operational expenses are paid for by your donations. Sincere regards and may you be showered with God’s blessings everyday. May you be thankful everyday and may your joy in life always improve.

Habitaciones Para Latinos Association

Dear readers, I have one thing weighing very heavy on my heart. I have been helping a Jessica Hernandez who is trying to refurbish an abandoned property in hopes to house herself and three children…

Source: Why supporting your grassroots charities is best. You can see immediate results