A Home For Our Foster Daughter

My niece was recently removed from the custody of her mother by DCF and was placed in emergency custody with us. I live in a very small, one bedroom apartment and my girlfriend is also co-guardian but is not on the lease. It's a very tiny place and isn't suitable for children. The lease is up at the end of June and DCF is requiring that she have her own room, which means we will need to be upgrading to a larger apartment. Since this was not something we planned for, we were caught off guard and have been doing our very best to keep her from having to go into foster care, but it's been extremely difficult. I had to quit my 2nd job since childcare doesn't cover those hours, and it has cost the household an extra $1,000 a month in income. My girlfriend works in Alzheimer's care, and due to the nature of the condition, is temporarily out of work whenever a client passes away until she is reassigned, which is unfortunately a semi-regular occurrence in that field. We have been getting by to the best of our abilities, and rent has been getting paid, but utilities have fallen behind. We're confident we can make it work month-to-month, but coming up with a security deposit for a new place has been the biggest challenge, since most landlords expect 3 months up front, and a bigger place will more than likely be more expensive. We need to be out of the current apartment before July 1 one way or another.

I had a lot of reservations about making this page. I'm not good at accepting financial help, let alone asking for it. I don't feel good about taking handouts, and my niece's mother hasn't worked her entire life... getting by on that very concept. That's *part* of the reason she was removed from custody. So I've always tried hard not to fall into that lifestyle. But a few people strongly encouraged that I make one of these, and I've come to the conclusion that you need to do whatever you need to do to support those you care about. She has flourished and learned so much since coming into our care and we would hate to see her have to go into the foster system, as most of her biological family is deceased or incarcerated, unfortunately. So it's really up to us at this point.

This campaign serves to help fund a down payment to get us into in appropriate living situation, as per DCF's requirements, as well as for her own personal benefit. I set the goal to cover roughly 1.5 months though the reality is that we will probably need 2-3. So any extra will absolutely be used accordingly, and even $5 pledges help, so don't feel silly pledging small amounts if you feel inclined to! We will still be kicking in all we can afford to and by no means expect everyone else to take care of everything. This was very difficult for me to do so thank you for the consideration. She's a really, really sweet, extremely bright, and happy child. She deserves the best life she can be given, especially after everything she's already been through in the less than 3 years since she was born. We don't
want her to ever have to go through that again.

Thanks again for your help and outreach! You're literally helping a young child live a better life.

-Matt, Diane, and The Little One


*Note* The goal was adjusted to better reflect the amount we will actually need and hopefully help get caught up on utilities as well. Don't want anyone to think we're pulling a fast one. Thanks again for all the support!