Hello, thank you for taking the time to read this.

We owned a home in Fredericksburg, VA, after I got out the service at the top of 2024 my wife and I decided to take a sabbatical in South Africa. At the time my mental health was not well, I have a disability rating from the VA for PTSD. Prior to my separation from the Navy I was admitted to the intensive outpatient program for my mental health. 6 months after separation from the Navy I was laid off from my contracting job 1 month before my daughter was due, life was hitting me hard and that is what drove us to South Africa. Prior to leaving, we put our house up for rent.

We rented the home out to a single mother who had just recently left a relationship with her 2 sons. We rented it to her under market value and fully furnished.

2 weeks into being in South Africa my tenant informed me that their was a backup on the bathroom leading to sewage water filling the tub and over flowing the toilet. I immediately got on the phone with Michael and Son plumbing and got them out there to fix the issue. I then called my insurance company, USAA, they denied my claim.

A few days later, the same issue occurred. We called Michael and Son back out to the property, a deeper investigation revealed the main drain pipe collapsed. The repair was estimated at 20k. Immediately called my insurance, they denied me. At the time my credit was not good, prior to being placed in the intensive outpatient program I had dropped 2 classes I was taking at UMGC and got hit with a 7k bill that I couldn’t afford and it went to collections. That affected my credit, so I had to call my parents to co-sign a 20k loan for me to get the repair done.

The work was completed in May of 2024. In June, my family and I decided to come back because I decided to enroll in culinary school, something I had talked about for years. We flew back to the US and stayed with my parents until August when I was to head to California for school. I planned to bring my family, but BAH pays in reverse, so we decided I would drive out to Pasadena and then fly them out September 1st after I got settled. Well, on August 29th, 2024 at the end of my class I looked at my phone and saw that my tenant had called me many many times.

I called her back and was informed that during a rain storm, a sink hole happened where Michael and Son dug up the drive way and the water pressure collapsed the front foundational wall of the home. So that night I lost my renters, so the mortgage was no longer covered by tenants and I couldn’t move my family back into the home. So we became homeless.

I told my wife I was coming home, she told me to finish my culinary degree because there was no where for me to come home to. So to finish my degree I lived in my car in Pasadena and my wife and children lived with her parents in a 2 bedroom apartment. I was building something good in California, before I even graduated I worked in 2 Michelin Starred kitchens, Osteria Mozza and Shibumi DTLA. I also developed cookie recipes that I was working on selling to shops. All of that has been derailed by the tragedy, I ended up having to come back to VA because my home had been condemned and the county was threatening legal action.

I came home in July of 2025, lived with my parents and family in Richmond. Due to my credit and the fact that we couldn’t afford the 100k repair to our home, we had to start shore sale proceedings which had made it virtually impossible to rent an apartment. My family put us out on the street, I eventually got us accepted for a place, and that brought us to New Orleans, where the cost of living is less.

We have moved here with nothing, most of our belongings were damaged and what was salvageable, the tenants stole from us. So, we are currently living with nothing. No furniture, no car.

We are trying to rebuild, I have a culinary degree that I want to utilize and your donation can help me by furniture for my family or start a food business for me to build to get back all that my family has lost over this year. Your donations will also help cover legal fees as we take a big corporation to court.