Ana and anisa housing fund

On dec. 11 at 330 am I (anisa olaniyi-oke) woke up hearing loud banging on the walls of the apartment. I assumed someone was working on something downstairs and went back to sleep for a few more minutes. The banging continued and now i started to hear yelling. I got out of bed because i smelled burnt plastic. So i looked around my house to see if my ten year old daughter had left anything unattended. I couldn't find anything but noticed the smokey smell was getting worse. I started to see hazey smoke around my house and i thought to myself let me look outside to see whats going on. When i looked out my bedroom porch window i saw a huge fire. I frantically woke up my daughter. Who was asleep in the living room where the fire mostly was at; in front of my front door. We lived on the second floor of the building and there was no back door, just my front door which was now melting and my back porch. The back porch was not a jump out the window distance from the parking lot. It was a few feet away from the ground. We frantically crying shaking and screaming try to grab things but couldn't think of anything. My daughter only wanted her cat, which is her baby. She kept trying to get the cat and put him in his cat carrier all while trying to put on clothes herself. i told her hurry run and put on shoes. The smoke started piling in the house in minutes. So we are getting even more scared cause now we are having trouble seeing and breathing. i call 911 and they explain to me that i need to get out of the house and i tell them that i can't that we are stuck. then i remembered the patio and yelled at my daughter that we had to leave right then. She couldn't get the cat from under the bed into the carrier and the house was filling with smoke too fast. She was my number one priority so i told her we had to leave the cat and go out the window. I opened the porch door to a bunch of people on the ground shouting there are people here! Then two officers climb the porch wall underneath us and tell me to hoist my daughter over the balcony railing. I lifted her up as quick as i could to saftey to the officers. They grab her and then try to grab me, but they are too low to the ground. I had my purse which contained my belongings and my car keys. I made sure to grab my laptop and our birth certificates. I had them in my left hand and the officer yells drop everything and come down. I drop all my things to the ground and im still too high from him to get over the railing and off the balcony. The The smoke starts burning my throat and chest trying to breath and im screaming someone help me! someone help me please! My daughter is on the ground watching me saying please mommy you got this jump please. I couldn't lift my leg to get over. i tried breaking the railing so it would fall and i would be free. I tried falling face first but i was still too short. They tried yanking me from below but they were still too low and it kept hitting my stomach. Finally the fire dept came and rescued me off the porch and i kept yelling my cat is in there. My daughter kept screaming please get the cat please. Afterwards the ems took us too get oxygen in the back of the ambulance. They checked our oxygen levels which by the grace of god were ok being the amount of smoke we inhaled and being asthmatic. We sat back in ems for hours trying to make light of everything. They wanted to take us to the hospital but i refused i didn't want to end up in the Hospital and they said nothing was wrong with us. I didn't have anyone to help pick us up from the hospital. It was 4 in the am and everyone i knew was asleep. So the ems and the fire dept resuced the cat and found the items i dropped on the ground. which included my car keys. We left ambulance when we didn't go to hospital and went to sit in the back of fire and rescue truck. They mentioned to us at that time that we couldn't go back in the house. The house was not in condition to live in because of the smoke. We were told at first that just our living room was messed up and that we could get some things out of the house after the smoke cleared. We were told by fire dept that victim services would help us with relocation. We were told that red cross would help us from then on out. Then we moved from the back of the fire dept rescue car to my car. By that time it was 11am sat morning. We were tired sore, sick, shocked and just wanted to shower, go back to sleep, eat or just sit...just us two.. Red cross gave us 515 dollar card that morning before we left. They stated that a case worker should be in touch with me about assistance with housing. They told me to rent a hotel room with the money they gave us and get a few things from the store. We still had our cat. He was barely moving, scared couldn't breathe and we had to find somewhere for him to go. So we did that, went to get clothes and shoes and checked into the hotel. Red cross stated that i would hear ffrom someone on monday about where to go from there. Sunday 12/12 came and i was now extremely sick and could barely move without getting motion sickness. Monday was time for school for my daughter and i was really bad. I decided to go a ER to see whats going on with me. I took my daughter to school and went to see doc. Diagnosed with blunt trauma to abdomen and carbon monoxide poisoning. I went back to my daughters school where i explained to them everything that was going on. The principal put me in touch with the campus counselor and the liason. Stephanie Garland and Karen Mcgherity. I visited with karen on monday and told her about the hotel, the fire, the needs, gifts for my daughter..etc.. She mentioned to me that she would use her resources to find help with hotel funds, food, clothing, housing assistance, and that she would reach out to my apartment landlord to see about the insurance putting us up somewhere. She mentiond that she would also have the school counselor Mrs. Garland reach out to me as well. Monday after the visit with Karen, i went to the apartment (ashford costa esmerelda) and went to speak to the manager about our belongings. She told me that an explosive substance caused the fire and that the neighbors downstairs from us started it with a smoking device. She said that the fire was under investigation and that we could not get our things out. She mentioned to me that red cross is supposed to be helping us get back into an apartment and should reach out to them. She mentioned to me that there were no more apartments to be housed in and to wait til red cross calls me back. She also gave me the victim's assistance packet from the apd and told me to call them for help too. She stated her apartments companies insurance won't pay anything until the investigation of the fire is done. I spoke with my red cross caseworker tim.. He stated that red cross does NOT assist with re-housing and will not give any further funds unless its for medical needs. He told me to reach out to austin disaster relief program. I reached out to them and they were able to help us with a few monitary items and clothing but not re-housing assistance. They refered me back to red cross and the apartments. So i called the fire dept investigator who i spoke with sat 12/11 morning. He gave me his card. I asked him who was supposed to be assisting us with re-housing and he stated the apartment is. That was on thursday 12/16. I received an email from Mrs Mcgherity stating that she reached out to th apartment complex and they told her that red cross was supposed to be helping us. Again. I told them the repsonse i stated with my case worker Tim. Mrs. Garland forwarded the email to the tenants council. in which they said i should get a lawyer. As of now we are still staying in the hotel. We would really love our own place. A place to call home.