Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
Mike Pete spent more than three decades fixing various elements of other people’s homes, so never did he think he’d be chosen to receive a new roof for free.
An eight-person crew from Freedom Roofing arrived at the 65-year-old’s Newport home at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and got to work stripping damaged shingles off his roof. The Bangor-based roofer chose Pete for the award because he has been grappling with cancer in his larynx, then his bladder, for nearly two years.
“We’re just hoping that we can alleviate part of the stress he’s facing at the moment for him and his family,” said Ryan Morris, president of Freedom Roofing.
Each year, Freedom Roofing selects a local person in need and installs a new roof on their home at no cost. Other recipients have included impoverished families and veterans, but this year, the company sought out someone battling cancer, as the disease hits especially close to home, Morris said.
“My brother and business partner is a cancer survivor and my mother is currently battling stage four cancer, so it’s personal for us this time,” Morris said.
Replacing a roof is one of many updates homeowners must make periodically to maintain their properties, but the cost of those necessary projects can place a burden on families, especially when prices everywhere are rising.
The cost of roofing materials, especially oil-based asphalt shingles, has spiked recently, and “it all gets passed on to the consumer to the point where nobody can afford to do anything,” Morris said.
The new roof came at the perfect time Pete said, as the 30-year-old shingles on his home had started to shatter and blow off in the wind. While the family hadn’t yet discovered leaks, they knew the aging roof needed to be replaced soon to avoid water damage.
Pete and his longtime partner, Cindy Smith, also hope to downsize in the coming years now that their children have grown up and left home, but wanted to put a new roof on their single-family house before putting it on the market, Smith said.
But, finding the time and money between Pete’s many medical appointments, tests and treatments would be difficult.
A new asphalt roof for a house of Pete’s size would otherwise cost $12,000 to $14,000, according to Morris.
“This is fabulous — unbelievable,” Pete said. “It really helped my pocketbook.”
Pete was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer nearly two years ago after sudden trouble swallowing sent him to the doctor.
Eight rounds of chemotherapy, 33 rounds of radiation treatments and surgery to remove the cancer in his larynx followed, he said. All the while, Pete struggled with bouts of pneumonia and sudden weight loss.
Doctors then realized the cancer had spread in his bladder after Pete noticed blood in his urine. Most recently, the inside of Pete’s bladder has been scraped to remove and test the troublesome tissue.
The roofing company selected Pete after the Maine Veterans Project, then Pete’s local American Legion, recommended him for the award. The offer took Pete entirely by surprise and he was initially hesitant to accept it, he said.
“I never believed this would happen to me,” Pete said. “I told them ‘If you have someone else whose roof is in worse shape than mine, do that one.’”