Adair Family Housing and Health Emergency

Hi, my name is Allison Quinones and I am a friend of the Adair family. Recently Joshua, Estella and their 4yo son Lion discovered black mold in their rental home in Austin, TX. This has led to more discoveries, including the possible reasons for mystery health issues, new health issues, and a huge financial strain on the family. I am starting this fundraiser out of love for them, as they have and are enduring a lot of hardship at this time. They have exhausted all options and have had to move into hotels and with friends while searching for a new home.

The Adair family moved into their home April 2022 and Estella was immediately overcome by chronic fatigue, daily headaches. Their son began having weird skin rashes, behavior issues, and Joshua was having constant brain fog.

In May 2022, due to the new chronic fatigue and daily headaches, Estella had testing done and had positive tests for inflammation that she hadn’t had before. Several months later in October 2022, she went to the doctor because she had a chronic cough that wouldn’t go away and wanted to test the inflammation numbers. The doctor told her that numbers were higher and would need to keep an eye on it as it will likely develop into an autoimmune disease. The Dr. had prescribed her an allergy medicine for the cough because she assumed it was just allergies. At the same time, Joshua started having brain fog and he has spent the last year working with a doctor to try and fix the issue but nothing has helped. Their son started breaking out in rashes on his face and all over his body, but the primary cause was not found.

Most recently, on December 16, 2023, Estella found a black substance above her ceiling fan (see photo) that looked like mold. She told their property management company. Then on December 18, Estella was changing the filter and look up and notice there is a large amount of mold on the outside of the duct work (see photos) directly above the HVAC unit. She sent more photos to the property management and at this time, they felt shock about how long they'd been living with this and breathing it in. A few days later, their son got sick with a virus and all three of them became sick.

On January 18th, they'd each had a doctors visit, each had an ER visit, and no one's health is improving, despite medications. Some of the health issues included sinus infections, ear aches, and bronchitis. Estella has had autoimmune issues/chronic fatigue/headaches/chronic cough since they moved in, and their son requires testing for autoimmune related disease, allergist, and lab testing. The doctor also informed them that living in a mold infested house would not allow their bodies to heal. Their landlord has allowed them to exit out of their lease without penalty, but this leaves them without a home and concern for their furniture and belongings and what has been contaminated.

Despite having health insurance, some of the medical costs won’t be covered due lack of coverage. Estella shared that "Traditional medical schools do note teach to identify environmental components to disease. Traditional physicians diagnose based on symptoms and treat primarily with prescription medicines.” (See article here)

They've had many concerns around their son's physical and behavioral health, their mental and physical health, the obvious need to finding a home and have stability for their family, and how will they pay for the hotel stays and doctor bills. Estella is close to graduating from UT with a degree in Social Work and has missed some class due to this. Joshua is a Mental Health Therapist and has also missed some work to care for their son.

They asked for their property manager/landlord to test the mold to know what they have been breathing and they have refused. Additionally, they refused to send a certified mold specialist. They've been told the management wants to remediate but don't know how long it will take. Additionally, they discovered that the previous tenants had black mold and health issues. They stated the landlord knew of this and rented the home to the Adairs without correcting the problem or making them aware of the issue.

The Adair's chose to have the mold tested and it came back positive for three different types of mold, but unfortunately that was only what they could see on the outside of the duct work. While mold is common, constantly breathing it in for some time will weaken the immune system and that is what their family is experiencing, which may have long term effects.

The Adairs desperately want to move into a new home that will be safe for their health and feel secure knowing they won't have to deal with a problem like this again. They deeply want their son's health to improve, along with their own and feel safe and secure in their living situation.

Funds they need support with are as follows:

Total: $6400

Thank you to all those reading this, they will deeply appreciate the support in any form!