They say lightning never strikes twice, but tragedy hit my family multiple times this year in the form of deportation, with far-reaching consequences. My name is Ivan, and we live in a working-class part of the Pittsburgh area, where my family has also worked hard for decades to improve. In a neighborhood where there were once mostly abandoned houses and overgrown lots, there is now a diverse and flourishing neighborhood of extended family members and friends. The power of our cooperative spirit is obvious everywhere you look. But now it’s hanging in the balance due to new devastating federal policies that are breaking up my family, and we need your help to keep the consequences from cascading across our community.

Early this year, my father, Armado, was deported, with dire consequences for not only our parents and our home, but the whole community we’ve built. My mother, Adelina, simultaneously lost her husband, and our family lost one third of our income, and many around us lost access to the paid work my father used to organize.

Then in August 2026, my mother, Adelina, received notice that she had missed a court date and had to voluntarily leave the country. Now we need to organize my mother's travel back to her country of origin, plus money for her to start her life over again in that place where she hasn't set foot in thirty years.

Then in September came another lightning strike in September—we received notice that there is a lien against our home. The school district has scheduled our house for sheriff sale on 2 November 2026. This notice has expanded our family’s crisis to a community scale, as we now face a devil’s bargain.

Our family’s only assets lie in the community of homes we restored and rent at low, affordable rates to our extended family members and friends. Selling them would destroy the community security that has been our lifelong labor of love and could leave multiple families with young children homeless. We are heartbroken and scared by our parents’ deportations, and the idea of risking the housing security of many and the life of this neighborhood due to a lack of resources breaks our hearts all over again. Everything is hanging in the balance. We need your help.

In a nutshell, here is what we need to avert this crisis. To pay the lien and stop the house from being lost to a sheriff’s sale would cost $9,090. Airfare for a round-trip ticket for me and a one-way ticket for my mother will cost approximately $1,500. When she arrives homeless back in her indigenous Central America community of origin, additional funds will be needed to cover housing, a bed, and other living essentials, costing approximately $4,000. If we can cover these costs by fundraising, we won't have to risk selling housing out from under our neighbors and extended family.

Please help us stop the collapse of our beloved community. Thank you for any help you can provide!