Donate to Secure a Safe Home for Kids

Hi! For everyone who knows me, they know I don't like asking for help, but my family and I are in an extremely tough situation and I wouldn't be making this if I didn't feel it necessary at this point.

We moved into our home in October 2019 into what we thought was going to be a long-term home for our family after just coming out of homelessness. There was such a sense of relief and now we are facing the very same situation again.

Three years ago, our kids went for their routine well-child checks and had their lead levels checked. We found that their levels were elevated, technically considered "lead poisoning." We had an inspection and found the levels were so bad that our kids couldn't even sleep in their bedrooms. It has been an extremely rough road since then as our landlord did not take care of the issue, but rather put a bandaid on the situation. We were given an ultimatum: enter into an owner-financed agreement for 2 years or get kicked out. Given how bad the market has been and wanting to continue to provide a roof for our kids, we opted to enter the agreement, knowing we would ultimately become responsible for the lead. We were under the impression based on all the information we were given that we would qualify for a grant through the state. Unfortunately, the whole first year of our contract there was no state funding, and we were unable to do anything. We applied for the grant this past January, and make JUST over the income guideline. With that being said, we had no other option but to take a course, which we had to pay $550 to put my father through. Unfortunately, that did not cover the cost of his license so he can do the abatement process on our home.

With all of this, we have two options: we come up with the money to pay off the last bit of what we owe to our landlord ($55,000) or we continue to try to finish the abatement process which we have until October to do.

We have looked at multiple other properties and have exhausted every option. We unfortunately do not qualify for a mortgage quite yet. We are trying our best and want to be able to provide a home for our kids and not uproot them again, especially given how expensive housing is currently. Please help us if you can.