Help Paula and Her 5 Grandchildren Regain Housing

My name is Paula. I am a 68-year old retired pediatric RN of 46 years, and the sole caregiver of my 5 grandchildren, Daniel (age 3), Christian (age 4), Devina (age 9), Elysiana (age 11), and Sophia (age 14). Their mother (my daughter) suffers from mental illness, PTSD from extreme domestic violence in her marriage, and addiction problems. She is currently houseless and since I took legal custody of the children, she has sporadic and inconsistent contact with me and the children by phone. It is challenging for me to care for all the children at my age and with my mobility issues, but I love them with my entire heart and soul, and wouldn’t dream of seeing them separated by the foster care system.

We are fortunate to have been living rent-free in my 95-year-old mother’s home for the last several years. The six of us were crowded but grateful to be in her 700 sq.ft. basement while she occupied the main floor of the house. However last year, when my mother had to be moved to assisted living, the children and I were able to begin living in the whole house giving us more space. It has been wonderful to have better access to a kitchen and another bathroom, and to have more room for everyone to sleep, play, and eat.

Unfortunately, the house was not in great condition. My mother accumulated a lot of things over many decades in the same house. The layers of accumulated items plus the difficulty of cleaning up after 5 growing kids created a terrible mice infestation that has led to the ruin of mattresses, furniture, appliance cords and electrical systems. Given my mobility issues and limited income, this is an incredibly overwhelming and expensive problem to solve.

To my great despair, the city has recently deemed the home unlivable, and has ordered us to leave the house for 30 days until safety improvements have been made. We are working to get the junk removed and a social worker helped us obtain a grant through a junk removal service to begin this work. But there is still a great deal to be done to make the house safe and livable so that I and my five young grandchildren can move back in. In the meantime we must lodge in a single hotel room, which is quickly becoming too expensive for us. My mother's sister was able to provide financial assistance for us for the first two weeks at a hotel and we are grateful to have somewhere to be together.

I am gratefully and humbly asking for the assistance of this community that helped us purchase a car a few years ago so I could fit all the children in one vehicle. In that campaign in 2022 we raised 18K of the 31K you see abovefor the car. The help you extended in paying for the vehicle was life changing for us and I am forever grateful. It pains me to ask for more help, but my limited income (a small pension, a share of my ex-husband’s retirement pension, and SSI) must be directed entirely to food, clothing, transportation, medical, and other bills and miscellaneous expenses. I have utilized public support services that have been available (i.e. the child tax credit which ended). There is no financial support from the children's parents and because I am a relative who took over legal custody of the children, I am not eligible for the same benefits foster parents receive to feed and house children. At this point, I am facing this extreme financial hurdle by myself.

In addition to the profound mice infestation which has ruined many of our household items and spaces, there are significant electrical, plumbing, painting, and ceiling repairs necessary as well.

Here is an inventory of the costs we need to cover in order to regain our housing:

TOTAL: $12, 525

We are seeking local volunteers to help with the following, but any additional funds would be used to help with these as well: