My husband and I, along with our four rescue cats, will become homeless without immediate assistance.
Our area was struck by a natural disaster – a violent wind storm called a derecho caused extensive damage to a home we had just spent thousands of dollars repairing.
Our home insurance company, whom we have paid faithfully for over 20 years without filing a single claim prior to this, was obscenely low in their settlement given the amount of damage we sustained.
For a house that needs a roof, siding, part of an exterior wall replaced, concrete repair, paint and that also sustained water damage… They gave us a whopping $2,000.
Unfortunately, we lacked the time and resources to properly fight their decision. This forced us to go farther into debt to purchase home materials and to climb around attempting to make repairs on our own.
Unexpected medical expenses for both of us at the same time has made the situation go from really bad to completely desperate.
Now we and our cats are in danger of homelessness due to the damage from the above mentioned disaster and a vindictive realtor who has spent months pressuring the city to force us out.
My husband has continued working past retirement age at a dangerous manufacturing job and I have been grabbing every bit of overtime that I can.
We have slashed our already modest expenses, found creative ways to save, even sold many of our belongings... but it’s never enough.
We are unable to sell the house ‘as-is’ because we owe far more on the mortgage than we could ever get in a sale.
We have just over $40,000 remaining on the mortgage and just under $20,000 owed on the personal loan we took to fix up the house prior to the storm ripping it apart.
Even the lowest, bare-bones repair estimates are well over $30,000, as neither of us is physically able to make the needed repairs ourselves at this point and we would need to hire a contractor.
To receive needed medical care and necessary surgeries, we have fully exhausted our meager savings and now owe over $7,000 on credit cards we had barely even touched before.
We are responsible, hard-working people who have had a horrible run of bad luck and have been the target of more than one unscrupulous person or entity in the process.
We need to either:
Repair this house so we can stay in it without being constantly harassed, living in perpetual fear of being forced out.
OR
Pay off the mortgage and move, using the proceeds of an ‘as-is’ sale towards a down payment and to hopefully alleviate some of our other debt.
Either option would easily cost $40,000 at this point and we are running out of time.
We are under increasing pressure from the city, as the realtor who owns the property next door has made it her personal mission to get us thrown out.
To that end, she has contacted the city incessantly, often with false or highly exaggerated claims, causing me to receive stressful calls from the city inspector on a regular basis regarding the condition of our home while notice after notice is mailed to us.
Any amount you are able to give will make an immediate impact on our family’s survival.
Your generosity can save our lives.
Please, please, help us not lose everything we’ve worked and sacrificed for.