MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two seniors are getting some help to keep a roof over their heads thanks to people who stepped up to help after WREG highlighted their situation last month. Cathy Jackson and Cleo Dalton had trees come crashing down, tearing their roofs to shreds at their homes. They'd been living with the damage for years. "It messed up the ceiling, the roof," Jackson said. "First of all, it messed up all the roofing of the house." They say help that is supposed to be there for senior citizens, wasn't there for them."Told me I didn't qualify because the amount of things that needed to be done in my home was more than their budget would allow," Dalton said. "And so I was denied. I had been waiting over four years." ORIGINAL STORY: Elderly residents seeking help after trees damage their homes WREG's story caught the attention of Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. "We're going to try to get on it. So thanks for running that story. And it's a terrible condition that the woman is in," Harris said. "I think a lot of people find themselves in this situation. I think, you know, the story really pointed out an important problem, and I think we will be able to find a solution." He got the homeowners' information from us and started his staff working to find help. "We'll try to work with our our housing department to see if we can figure out a solution for her, or we'll work in partnership with Habitat for Humanity," Harris said. Habitat for Humanity regularly provides aid to seniors who have roof issues. But they say problems like these are too numerous to count in our area, and the need far exceeds the funds."We generally will spend $15,000 to $18,000 per intervention, said Dwayne Spencer, Habitat for Humanity President and CEO. "And sometimes, as the story that you just did reveals, we do find that folks homes are much further into disrepair than we can actually serve." After our story, Habitat revisted the two homeowners’ applications for assistance, and still found the cost of the repairs far exceeded what their funds were allowed to do per household."I'll tell you the families we're serving live on less than $1,500 a month. So they can't do this with a loan," Spencer said. Potholes open up on Memphis streets after snow But they hope these situations open up the conversation about the need for more funding and more community support. "We may have enough funding to serve 100 seniors, but we may get 800 to 900 calls each time we open up the phone lines," Spencer said. "When we see that a repair is really going to cost $30,000 to $40,000, you know it hurts to have to walk away, but we work within the confines of the funding that we have. And so that's a real, significant need for us is funding that a larger pool of funding as well as dollars, where we can spend more per unit." He continued, "We can only do the work if the community or government or foundations are willing to provide the funding for us to do it. And so, while our goal is to do 250 minimum per year, we know that there's more needed in the community." And parts of the community are listening.After our story, a local church stepped up to provide the residents with a few thousand dollars — not enough for completely new roofs, but definitely enough to help some seniors in need, hopefully with more help to come. "I don't know if government or Shelby County can solve every single problem out there. I know we can try," Harris said.Habitat for Humanit says last year, they did 253 critical repairs at homes of older adults. Their new funding window opens Jan. 16.