Help Indigenous Family Buy a Home

Yá'át'ééh, hello. My name is La Tisha and I am hoping to raise funds to help me put a down payment on a home for my baby & I.

I have been a Youth Worker for over 12 years and have worked minimum wage jobs before/during the beginning of my youth services career. I moved to Portland over 5 years ago and my first employer was a non-profit that supported youth who had been previously incarcerated, were a part of the foster care system, and often both. This job was demanding, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Even with as much experience (work and education) that was requested, the job paid $13/hour in a city that has ever high rental prices and living expenses. I stayed at this position for over 2 years even though I was being paid so little because I wanted to be there to help the youth I worked with graduate the program. As a Case Manager, I was able to help guide so many youth to graduate and leave the program AND not return to the juvenile system / work towards adulthood. Eventually, I learned that there were people with less experience/no experience were making more money than I was and with most of the youth I worked with successfully leave the program, I moved on. I now work for another non-profit in the city that focuses on supporting Indigenous youth and their families in various ways.

Throughout college (yes so much student loan debt), I focused on Youth Development as well as Child & Adolescent Psychology. I had a strong passion to support and build up Youth to see their potential. I knew this field wouldn’t pay as well as others and I perhaps I was naive to just how much less folks are paid versus other industries. I accepted that buying a home for myself would be only ever dream and I was okay with that for a long time until my life changed.

In early May of 2020, I learned I was two months pregnant. I never thought I could have a baby and somehow just before a pandemic shutdown, I did. My baby was born on December 5th and my entire life changed the moment I held my bubs for the first time. I knew while growing my baby in my belly that they existed and it was still surreal to me. My life choices now include taking care of and thinking of another human first. I want to be able to provide stability and a home for my baby.

Although the price on houses are almost half a million dollars, I know that I would be able to afford a mortgage easier than paying for an apartment or renting a home. In fact, paying for a mortgage would be about $400-$500 less per month. However, I don’t have a large savings. I had to take three months of unpaid maternity leave in order to protect my baby from the pandemic and most of my savings went to paying for rent, diapers, formula, groceries and other living expenses for myself and baby including the hospital bill. My partner (baby’s father) also had to dig into all his savings when he took leave & returned to having to backpay for insurance during the months he was unemployed. He initially thought he was going to get paid .75 of his hours and was denied after filling out paperwork multiple times.

I always believed in mutual aid efforts and supported others before I even learned what mutual aid was. For myself, I found it difficult to ask for help and now as a parent, I recognize that asking for help and relying on community is a strength.