Hello,

My name is Summer Robinson. I am a writer, filmmaker, and publisher. I met Mrs. Theresa Godfrey during the summer of 2018 at the Women on the Rise nonprofit organization where she was an advocate for criminal justice reform. I interviewed Theresa for my documentary "Harriet's Daughters." Theresa openly shared her remarkable story with me of how she went from serving a 2008 prison sentence to changing her life and working for criminal justice reform. I remember feeling both inspired by and proud of this woman who went from suffering from drug addiction to dedicating her life to helping other women avoid making the same mistake.

I am writing today to fight for Mrs. Theresa and her family. On June 13 Theresa’s landlord informed her that she and her family will need to vacate their home by July 15. The Godfreys have lived in their Atlanta home since 2012 and were expecting to renew their lease on June 30. Now they are left with having to prepare to move 11 years' worth of memories in a few short weeks with no idea where they will go.

For years, Theresa had a successful cleaning company. Her husband Nathan worked as a truck driver from 1978 - 2018 when he had an injury that led to him having to get hip replacement surgery. During the pandemic, Theresa was unable to continue running her cleaning business and because of Nathan’s disability, he was unable to continue working as a truck driver. Additionally, Theresa fell and broke her hip, which prevented her from being able to work for a while. Their son, Andrew moved in to help out his parents but has since lost his job. The family used up their savings during the pandemic and Nathan used his 401K to pay the rent. He has faced ageism when trying to find work, which has prevented him from being able to support his family.

The Godfreys have always been who their family members could turn to in their time of need. Today, the Godfreys are the ones in need of help.

Their goal is to raise $20,000. This will cover three months of rent and utilities in a new home, car notes, car insurance, moving expenses, and medical fees.

Sadly, the pandemic and unemployment completely wiped out their savings.

Theresa is 68 years old, Nathan is 65, and their son Andrew is 35 and has to go to dialysis three times a week. It has been difficult for them to recover from the blunt effects of the pandemic, medical setbacks, and unemployment.

Their current leasing agreement states that the landlord must give them a 60-day notice before asking them to move out. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Now they are left with no money and nowhere to go.

I humbly ask that you please donate whatever you can to help the Godfreys move out of their current home of over 10 years and find a new home to get back on their feet.

Whatever you can do to help will be incredibly appreciated.

Please feel free to read below to learn more about the Godfrey’s story from Theresa’s own words.

Thank you so much,

Summer Robinson

"My family and I fell behind on rent in March. I was tired of not knowing when I was going to be served with eviction so I called my landlord directly to plead for a little more time to pay the back rent and to have an additional 3 months' extension so that my husband could have his hip replacement done and time to heal. I wasn’t expecting what came next, which left me with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

How would you feel if you were told that after living in your home for 10 years and talking with the owner on June 13th, he would not be renewing your lease on June 30th because he wanted to make upgrades so that he could raise the rent and that you and your family would have to vacate your home by July 15th?

All because he wants to remodel the home so that he can charge more money and get a bigger profit. His words, not mine.

At 68 years old, I am unable to retire. I worked a full-time job as a canvasser and on December 16th I was a part of a massive layoff because the Georgia Elections had been decided. In March I was hospitalized 3 times due to diabetic complications, which included a 5-day hospital stay. Our $3,100 savings was hit with a $2,800 truck transmission repair bill that left me with no transportation for 42 days from mid-January to March.

With my son's car needing tires and brakes, we decided that something would not be paid with March’s income. Using Uber to get groceries along with the high cost of attending doctor’s appointments ate up our savings. To add insult to injury, the truck was finally repaired and had to be picked up otherwise there would be a daily storage fee added to the repair cost. So the decision was made that we would pay the rent late and add $120 because if we had the truck back we could at least do some light hauling with our regular construction site partners. Little did we know that they had gotten some new folks to do our side hustle. Not even the Pandemic had hit us this hard. All that I could think of was that we were going to get evicted and then where would we be?

The eviction never came, we were able to pay our rent on time but remained unable to catch up which was $1,320. The other dagger in my back was because I lost my job I couldn’t pay my truck note, which was $732 a month and I was 3 months behind. I had to pay that so it didn’t get repossessed; living in a rural area with no bus service, how would we get to our mandatory doctor’s appointments or buy our food without a vehicle? We knew what vehicle repossession would cause because we went through it during the pandemic.

My husband was scheduled for hip replacement surgery, which was originally scheduled for July and has now been postponed till August. This denies him any relief from severe pain with each step he takes. Our son who is also on disability with chronic kidney disease takes dialysis 3 times a week; he also needs his car’s air conditioning fixed. He often comes home with heat exhaustion. This is very hard on him and this weakens him even more by having to go to his treatments in the heat of the day, the estimate accepted is $875.00.

My 62-year-old sister also lives with me and suffers from PTSD, she has a very hard time with change."

Thank you all for taking the time to read the Godfrey's story. Whatever you can do to help them get through this difficult time would be greatly appreciated.

If you would like to speak with Mrs. Theresa directly, she can be contacted at [phone redacted] or [email redacted]