Metro

Safe at home

GIVING BACK: Valeriya Beloshkurenko runs a home-repair program for elderly low-income New Yorkers. (
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For Valeriya Beloshkurenko, who came here 23 years ago from Odessa, her job — helping elderly New Yorkers “in memory’’ of a beloved grandmother who remained in Ukraine — is also her joy.

Beloshkurenko — who says she also wants to “give something in return to people in this country who gave me an opportunity” — is director of Home Services at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

She oversees Project Metropair, the nonprofit’s free home-repair program for low-income seniors. It installs grab bars, smoke alarms, window guards, door locks, chains and peep holes.

“It helps people to be more secure and safe in their homes,’’ she said. “I think it is very important for people to stay as many years as possible in their own space, where they have their neighbors and their memories.

“People call me and say, ‘We heard about your program. My door lock broke down, and I don’t have money to fix it, and I’m afraid.’ ’’

The needy senior citizens helped by the program include a number of Holocaust survivors, but “at least 50 percent of the people we serve are non-Jews,’’ Beloshkurenko said.

Budget cuts have hurt to the point where “we have around 200 applications on a wait list,’’ said Beloshkurenko, who was nominated for a New York Post Liberty Medal in the Freedom category by Met Council CEO William Rapfogel.