This is not a relative of ours, but our next-door neighbor. He lives alone, never married & no kids. Unsure what family of his is in the area, no one visits him, and certainly there's no one except maybe children of his cousins etc. He is about 85, by now is losing his memory and a bit unsure of himself. We know he has very little money other than Social Security. He still lives in his parents' big 1920s house that is a sound structure but is really "starting to go." Apparently his family tried to get him to move out years ago, but he was belligerent and they gave up (and he is still stubborn about it). He seems to like living alone, and did ok for years, but at his age now, it's a problem. My husband and another neighbor mow his lawn and shovel his snow and trim his bushes for him, and my husband is very handy and fixes what he can in the house, but by now everything in the house is going bad. He's not a hoarder or mentally ill in any way. The plumbing is the biggest problem - it is so old and corroded, it blew holes a couple times over the past year, but it was able to be patched, and I guess he paid for that when plumbers were called, but now the last time it was serious enough that my husband had to run over and shut off the hot water pipes entirely and patching isn't going to work; so now he has only cold pipe water. And he hasn't called the plumber this time, likely because he can't afford the major outlay. His kitchen sink hasn't drained for years, again because the drain plumbing is so old that my husband doesn't dare touch it, so the neighbor has been washing his dishes in his utility tub. He's down to 1 working bathroom (barely). The whole house is pretty dirty, and in some places extremely so. Stove has maybe 1 burner that works, otherwise he uses the microwave, which is now getting unreliable as well. Furnace doesn't always work properly. He does still drive his car daily, to get groceries or a bite to eat, and I think that is important to him, tho how he drives is probably questionable. It would be nice if we could afford to hire companies to fix everything for him, but we're low-middle class, so that is out of the question. There is a local assistance program that could bail him out and pay for all the plumbing if he applied for it (they would put a lien on the house, for repayment when it sells), but for some crazy reason he seems very uninterested in doing this. So currently he is "getting along," but it's only a matter of weeks or months before something else major goes south - - his car, more plumbing, his microwave, his furnace, etc. So what do we do? "Turn him in"? (and to whom?) Don't know that his house is bad enough to be condemned. Do you try to find family?--(except they couldn't talk any sense into him before, I think they've washed their hands.) I doubt he would qualify as someone who "couldn't make his own decisions." What happens when something major just stops working? We cannot take him into our house, our adult kids live with us and it's full, and we also just plain don't want to. But he really needs assisted living, or to live with family that will take care of him. But he can't afford assisted living, I've heard that costs a lot. Any ideas are appreciated; thought I'd try this site before speaking to some local community agency. Thanks
Some Habitat for humanity groups help seniors with this type of situation. So when they aren't building a new home for someone, they may be doing repairs for those who can't afford it.
The Catholic Charities near me has a program where seniors or disabled homeowners are matched up with someone who is without housing but on the way to improving their lives. SO, the person who needs the housing may live in a spare bedroom and take out garbage, do some cleaning, etc. In this case, it would be great if the person was handy. Participants in this program do not have to be Catholic.
Jewish congregations often conduct a 'mitzvah'. This is an act of kindness and occasionally, the congregation acts as a whole to improve someone's situation.
Is there a technical school nearby that would conduct these fixes as part of an internship?
Separately, I would try to contact any family members. Even if they can't influence his decisions, notifying them of his situation may garner some action or visits. It is kind of you to be concerned. Keep us posted.