Low-income elderly individuals often lack the means to repair even the most urgent problems in their homes. Some wait years for help—living with leaking roofs, no hot water, or a non-functioning kitchen. Many are forced to choose between essential expenses like food and medication or home maintenance. Unable to afford even the most basic repairs, they often suffer in silence, too ashamed to ask for help or to allow anyone into their homes.
Tenufa Bakehila addresses the painful reality of housing poverty among tens of thousands of elderly Israelis and Holocaust survivors from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds. Many live in homes with collapsed ceilings, crumbling walls, no running water in the bathroom, severe mold, rotting kitchen cabinets, exposed electrical hazards, broken flooring that poses a serious fall risk, no lighting, and doorways inaccessible to wheelchairs.
Many of these seniors lack both family support and access to governmental or organizational assistance.
Each year, our teams renovate approximately 300 homes for elderly individuals, including around 100 Holocaust survivors living in unsafe, substandard housing throughout the country.
Our comprehensive assistance improves their quality of life by providing safer, more comfortable, and more dignified living conditions. After renovations, seniors are at lower risk of falls, household accidents, and respiratory illness. Sanitary conditions improve dramatically, and many report reduced feelings of isolation, depression, and despair.
Some even regain the confidence to invite family and guests into their homes once again.
Tenufa Bakehila’s social worker also helps secure vital support: government benefits, in-home caregiving, furniture and basic appliances like beds, refrigerators, and washing machines, as well as food assistance and daily hot meals. For many, this intervention is truly a turning point.
To broaden our impact, we collaborate with municipal welfare departments and leading organizations supporting Holocaust survivors in Israel, including the Foundation for the Welfare of Holocaust Victims, the Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority, Aviv for Holocaust Survivors, ELA, AMCHA, and others.
Renovation of a daycare center for children with special needs
Renovation of the home of a widow whose daughter has mental health challenges and lives with her
Renovation of the home of a newly immigrated divorced man without children
Renovation of the home of an elderly man suffering illness and disability
Renovation and painting home of a family with special needs children, damaged by fire
Renovation of a bedroom with a broken and dangerous floor for a disabled woman
Renovation of a house where tree roots penetrated the pipes causing extensive system damage
enovation of a shelter after a fire
Kitchen replacement for an elderly immigrant couple from Ethiopia
Renovation of a shelter flooded up to knee level with sewage water
For four years, a single grandmother and her grandson showered using a hose pulled from the bathroom
Single father with mental health challenges; one of the sons has special needs
Replacement of a solar water heater for an elderly man who had no hot water for 5 years
An elderly man who lived without running water, using a hose from the garden — now finally able to shower with running water.
A yard once infested with dangerous reptiles has been transformed into a safe space for a family with young children
Kitchen renovation for a family of a combat soldier
Renovation of a shower for an elderly couple living without proper conditions
Renovation of a bathroom for a Holocaust survivor
Painting a shower room for a single mother
Bathroom renovation for an elderly adult
Renovation of a Holocaust survivor’s bedroom
