Help the Whitley Family Avoid Eviction

Our problems began in August when my car broke down for the millionth time. I had been working on it for months as I couldn't afford to take it to a mechanic. Every time I fixed one thing, a new issue popped up. So finally I threw in the towel and opted to get something a little more reliable. Due to me and my wife both having bad credit, we had to go to a little "buy here, pay here" place in our city. We got the cheapest car they had, which had a few minor issues, or so they said. The dealer made an agreement that we could bring it back in at any time so they could fix the problems they knew about at the time of sale. Unfortunately, working a full time job that you need your car to get to doesn't leave a lot of time when you can go without while someone works on it. 1 month after we got the car, the engine misfires, rendering it inoperable. I had it towed back to the dealer, and was told it would be 2 or 3 days before they were finished with it. During this time we rode the bus as often as we could, but here it only runs till 6pm and not at all on Sundays. I work evenings and on Sunday so I had to buy a bike to get to and from work. 3 weeks later we finally got our car back. 

Less than 24 hours after we got our car back from the dealer, it broke down again. Complete electrical failure as I was driving down the street. I couldn't even shift it out of park or remove the key from the ignition once it died. So once again it was towed back to the dealer. All the while we were still expected to be making our car payments. 4 days later we got the car back again. It drove fine for 2 weeks before it died on me again while I was on my way home from work. It was the exact same problem as the last time which the dealer had supposedly fixed. At this point I stopped making my payments as the dealer had spent half the time I had the car working on it.

So anyway, all the time spent without a car in a fairly car dependant city was costing us extra money between ubers and things like grocery delivery. Rent came due in October and we couldn't afford to pay it. Our landlord filed for eviction and we began scrambling to try and keep our house. A few days before the court date, we finally had enough money to pay our rent. The landlord refused to accept it, which is legal where we live. So we were forced to move.

We took the first available place as we had a very small window to move out. We were now about 10 minutes outside the city on the opposite side from my job. After moving, we had very little money left, and were still without a car. We decided it would be better to rent a car until we got ours back as it would be cheaper than both of us ubering to work every day. We only had enough money for a weeks rental, but with no other options we just had to hope we'd get our car back by then. A week went by and still no car. We were so broke we couldn't afford gas to get to both our jobs. Since I make more we prioritized mine and my wife ended up getting fired for missing work. My account went negative from the rental as we kept it past the return date. I continued driving the rental for almost a month after my account stopped letting the charges go through. I was getting daily calls to return the rental. Eventually it was reported stolen. I kept driving it anyway knowing that it could end up with me in jail because I was just so desperate to keep our heads above water.

About 3 weeks ago I got off work and came outside to find the rental was gone. They had finally found it and repo'd it. So, I've been ubering to work since then which is averaging out to about $30 a day. My boss gives me rides when she works the same schedule as me, but that's only about once a week. A week ago we finally heard back from the dealer about our car. They said it was ready for pickup but we would need to pay $900 to get it back since we hadn't been making our payments. Which frankly, who would? So any hope of having a car in the near future went out the window.

Now rent is due. And it's looking like we'll have about $300 by the final day we have to make a payment, which is the 17th. We need $1200 total to avoid eviction. That's not to mention that we'll need food as well. And we have 2 young children (5 and 8), who probably won't have a Christmas this year. So I'm here, begging and hoping for the kindness of strangers to somehow help us not lose our home. We've already borrowed as much as our families can afford to give, which is not much as they live about as well as we do. We've tried 211 and local churches, but they'll only cover the last $50-100 and you have to show that you have the rest. We've applied for SNAP but are currently awaiting a decision letter. I can't donate plasma because of a daily medication I have to take, and my wife has tried but for some reason it is extremely difficult for them to find her veins and draw from them. All that is to say that we are out of options. This is our last resort.

Any amount of help would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for reading this far and giving our situation some consideration. Happy holidays.