Help homeless family back home

Hi, my name is Sarah Yaseen and I’ve created this GoFundMe page as a way to reach out to the community for some support. My cousin is a single mother with 3 children. There was a need for her teenage son to have his own space and rather than moving, his mum made the decision to stay in the current 2 bed house and convert the loft into a habitable bedroom space. The company was hired from the 2nd week of March '21 and seemed legitimate at the beginning; there is a contract and scheduled work is listed, but after paying a lump sum and also continuing to pay regularly for daily/weekly ‘supplies’, the builder and his small workforce suddenly left. The project was to be completed within a 9 week phase with 2 weeks contingency but it is has been over 2.5 months that the company has been unreachable.

The roof is exposed which has caused damage to the house and is still currently exposed causing further damage and damp to the house. He took out the chimney without fixing an RSJ to support the remaining chimney at the top, making it dangerous. The builder and workers gave no insight to my cousin on the depth of the work that they were going to undertake, and seeing that the family was not in the house to overlook the work, the builders showed very little respect and care to the family’s belongings. With no protection, the whole house including mattresses, clothes, electrical equipment, books, furniture and furnishings are covered with sheets of soot. The family exercise bike, her daughter’s large mirror and other ruined items were found in the garbage pile that the builders had amassed in the garden. The builder’s response was for her not to worry about the damaged items and that he would replace them.

The house is inhabitable, dangerous and builders who have come to quote on re-establishing a livable home were as astounded as I was by what they saw. She was quoted £35K to make it habitable again; a sum that my cousin does not have. Limited by her disability, my cousin works part time and unfortunately the council will not help to re-house her as she has a mortgage on the house. She has been sleeping on her sister’s couch for over 3 months and the children have been sleeping in different family member’s homes. The children are intelligent, respectful and have good futures; M achieved SAT’s grades to be amongst the top 5% in the UK and A is studying to become a scientist. I had no idea of the extremity of it all until she reached out and asked for help. The children and mum are mentally struggling and when D, her teenage son broke down in front of me, it was such a difficult moment to comprehend. My cousin doesn’t have the mental capacity and strength to help her own self out of the situation as she is still recovering from her breakdown due to the divorce after being married for 26 years. She gave me the permission to share her story so that I could commence with the GoFundMe page. To go through a divorce is an incredibly difficult experience and as a single parent myself, I know how important it is to give stability and safety to children so that they can succeed in life and in turn, the space to allow us as mothers to heal and become something of ourselves too.

As stated, Tameside council will not help due to the mortgage on the house and there is an urgency for the family to be housed temporarily so that they can be together. I ask you, the community, to help me through this fund request and thus help build her house so that they can be safe and stable in their own home as soon as can be possible.

Whether it is in kind (builders helping) or whether it is financial, I’m reaching out to humbly ask for even a coffee’s amount of a donation to be able to aid me and bring this family back together again.

I would appreciate any amount of help.

Kind regards and blessings,

Sarah