By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

It was an affair to remember on Saturday for 80 low-income homeowners, who had their houses repaired free of charge by more than 700 volunteers with the local non-profit People Working Cooperatively.

The group performs home repairs for low-income senior citizens all year long. But the annual spring "Repair Affair" allows the organization to help a large number of needy people on one day and recruit new volunteers for its work force.

Jock Pitts, the agency's president, said most clients are the "invisible poor."

"These are people who at one time bought their own home, invested in the community and had jobs," Pitts said. "Now, either because of old age, disability or the death of a loved one, they can't afford to keep it up.

"We are here to help them stay in their homes so they don't end up on public assistance."

Most people who were helped Saturday earn $13,000 a year or less.

Ruth Ann Segrist, a 52-year-old resident of Harvest Lane in Bond Hill, said she might not have been able to stay in her home without the group's help.

Segrist inherited the house when her mother passed away and wants to continue living in the home where she grew up.

Segrist suffers from asthma and lung disease. Those conditions were being aggravated by mold in her basement, while termites were threatening the house's stability.

A crew of 18 people cleared out the basement, wore masks while cleaning out the mold, replaced windows, put in traps to eliminate the termites and cleared weeds from her yard.

"My mother was a packrat who kept everything from butter lids to coffee cans," Segrist said. "They're doing this so I can breathe in my house. It's a wonderful thing, because I can't do it myself."

People Working Cooperatively has a full-time staff of more than 65 people, and an annual budget of more than $5 million. It bids on competitive home repair work during the year, so the profits from that work can be used to help the needy.

"We're a business that provides a charity," Pitts said. "We're a full-scale construction company. But our charity work today is only as good as we were (at turning a profit) yesterday."

John and Marsha Rothel of Amelia brought the whole family to help at the Segrist home Saturday - three sons, a daughter and a German exchange student living in their home this year. The Rothels have been working with the repair agency for eight years.

"I hope the kids learn to do things for others and that people need their help," Marsha Rothel said.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com