Meeting The Transportation Insecurity Challenge: The Lift Garage

Eleven years ago, a former pastor and social worker took her newly acquired skills as an automobile mechanic and opened up a shop with a difference. Her mission is to help those under the poverty level who cannot afford repairs on their vehicles by offering lower shop rates.

The Lift Garage made it through so much to continue staying open and meeting their mission for their community. A major riot in 2020 did not deter Heying and her staff from getting their work done. After all, they were considered an essential service and continued to keep the shop open for business.

At the center of it all is The Lift Garage’s founder Cathy Heying. What she learned from the Dunwoody College of Technology was just a part of the larger picture. From a need to help low income people to get to work where there is no reliable public transportation available, Heying said that The Lift Garage started “subletting one bay one day a week, and we’ve grown considerably since then.”

That growth led to a location The Lift Garage bought on Lake Street in Minneapolis near the Metro Transit Green Line Light Rail station at Hiawatha Avenue. That building has five service bays and a backlog of customers needing their services.

To be eligible for having a vehicle worked on by The Lift Garage, Heying states that a customer’s income has to be “at 150% of federal poverty guideline or below. What that translates to is about $23,000 a year or less for a household of one, I think it’s about $28,000 or $29,000 a year or less for a household of two.”

Currently, The Lift Garage sees 120 cars per month. According to Heying, they are “currently booked out for about two months. It would be longer if we opened up our schedule, but our schedule’s currently closed because it doesn’t serve anybody well to have appointments five or six months out.”

While growth continues at The Lift garage, some things have not changed. Heying states that the shop rate has remained $15.00 an hour. Most repair shops charge much more than that rate.

“The other things that haven’t changed are our commitment to honoring the dignity of every person that walks in the door,” explained Heying. “Our commitment to hospitality and having quality coffee in the waiting room, our commitment to knowing people’s names and our commitment to honest advice. Those are hard conversations sometimes because people come to us in great hope that we’re going to magically make this thirty-year-old car, brand new. Instead, we tell them that it’s got a rusted subframe and isn’t safe to drive and they shouldn’t invest any money into it. But, we believe that’s part of our mission too, is making sure that people have all the information they can and need about making the right decisions about their investment.”

What about customer satisfaction? Skye Shrader, the Marketing and Communications Specialist for The Lift Garage said that “75% out of one through five say they’re extremely satisfied with [The Lift Garage’s service], which is great. It is great being able to help customers and most of them are able to get their car where they need to be, and it lasts long.”

Some of these vehicles they work on have well beyond 100,000 miles on the odometer, perhaps up into the 200,000-mile-plus range. Mileage and age – 20-plus year-old vehicles are not an uncommon sight at The Lift Garage – create a challenge to keep on the road. The mechanics on site see everything from worn down tires, rusted suspension components and frames, brakes that are beyond basic service, and so forth.

There is one thing to point out about The Lift Garage: Its commitment to being a part of our community. “I think the fact that the organization is headed by an out lesbian doesn’t hurt that, people know it’s a safe place,” explained Heying. “I feel like not intentionally, it wasn’t by design, but it has happened that many of our folks, I mean many of our techs, even folks who don’t identify themselves on that spectrum, they maybe have different leanings than what you typically find working in a garage. And so we’ve had techs who have a particular political perspective that hasn’t been welcomed in an ordinary garage, and they have found a place here that they can sort of be safe and be comfortable.”

In the 11 years they have been in existence, The Lift Garage remains a vital and essential service to the people who need transportation. As Heying explained, “the fact that we own our building, we’ve built an addition. We have some office space. We’ve expanded into St. Paul. We’re not just surviving, but we’re thriving by many measures. And that’s huge. That’s huge.”

As they continue to thrive, The Lift Garage still needs your help. Watch for fundraisers and give what you can to keep the lights on, the parts flowing, and to hopefully offset the wait list to get service from this great automotive repair shop that continues to fill a necessary and essential service to those who need it the most.

If you are not following The Lift Garage on social media, you should! Their latest efforts have been engaging, informative, entertaining, and worth your follow on their channels.

Ultimately, The Lift Garage continues to stick to what matters: Their connection to its customer base. While sticking to its commitment to serve those who need transportation to get to their jobs wherever it may be. For the people at The Lift Garage, Shrader made it clear that “we’re not trying to sell anything. We’re being honest. We’re being people rather than salespeople.”

What we need in the world are people coming together for a common cause. In the case of The Lift Garage, it is to ease the pain of Transportation Insecurity.

The Lift Garage
2401 E. Lake St., Minneapolis
(612) 866-5840
www.theliftgarage.org