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Back on Labor Day, 9/3/18, total flood of our apartment just a few weeks before our baby arrived utterly decimated our family, financially and emotionally. And now, so absurdly, we find ourselves stuck between a real rock and hard place being displaced yet again due to mold. After living in multiple temporary spaces Sep and Oct, we moved into our current apartment in November, with our kids: 16 year old Julian, 3 year old Helena, and Saul who was three weeks old at the time of the move. We’ve been working hard to settle, decompress, and find normal again—to just enjoy our new baby and new family as a whole. It’s been really hard on us individually and as a family, in every way, as everyone who knows us (or just knows our story) knows.
As if the last five months haven’t been berserk enough, we have now found mold in our apartment. Every single window in the apartment leaks, creating soggy window framing and growing mold visibly (and likely invisibly). Two of the a/c vents (Julian’s bedroom and the living room) have heavy thick growth.
While I thought we were experiencing just a really rough season of allergies, we know now the mold has been affecting us. Mostly me and the kids; Abel, to a lesser degree. Julian has asthma and hasn’t been well or even looked well in a couple months. Helena has developed some skin issues, red-ringed eyes, paleness, and a lot of tiredness. Saul was a newborn when we moved in but started having the red-ringed eyes and sneezing and coughing as well. My doctor had told me that babies his age don’t get seasonal allergies... I couldn’t figure out why he seemed so affected. Now I know.
We discovered the worst of the mold in the bedroom where the babies sleep. In fact, the baby’s swing has been parked next to the area of thickest growth and we had no idea.
We had the apartment tested, out of our pocket, and found it positive for a couple strains. I’ll be taking those results to a specialist we are all seeing this week so I can get medical advice/reassurance/treatment as needed based on those mold test findings, the ages & health of the kids, and the duration of time spent living in it.
Our financial crunch is so awful because the flood in September utterly wiped out our savings. We lost almost everything—even items we’re still making payments on— and have spent the last months rebuilding ourselves with donations from folks of furniture, clothing, household items, or gifts of money. For both of these events, our insurance denied us any of our benefits because the water source (of both the flood and this mold issue) is outdoor/rain water instead of an indoor source like plumbing etc.
At this point we will need help cleaning a couple furnishings professionally, packing & moving, and ponying up all the deposits and fees you pay when you rent a house. We are getting out of and away from this apartment complex in which we’ve suffered TWO disasters.
With our savings gone, and hardly any income for January due to Abel staying home to help me with some postpartum illness, plus the fact we paid Feb rent and can’t get it back even though we had to leave due to the mold on Feb 11, we’re strapped. We are stuck in a show/model apartment at a complex across the street from our home as our stuff sits in the moldy apartment. It’s absolute misery to be essentially homeless with kids—babies—and try to keep up daily routines without your home! We’re locked in a battle with the property owner/corporation where they would push us to sign documents harmful to us, holding Feb rent as ransom.
Before we can even address the legal issues, we need to get our kids into a good, safe home. And do some healing and resting. I can’t describe how hard these past five months have been for our family or how all the time and attention the crises have stolen from us during a time in our lives which should be sweet and joyful, like welcoming a new baby should be.
We hope this campaign can help us get our deposits/fees paid for the rental house we wish to apply for, hire movers, and help us recoup both the rent we lose for Feb, as well as the $1k we had to spend ourselves to test the mold so we could help get the kids whatever medical attention they might need.
Thank you for reading about this and helping us through such an unbelievable mess.
As if the last five months haven’t been berserk enough, we have now found mold in our apartment. Every single window in the apartment leaks, creating soggy window framing and growing mold visibly (and likely invisibly). Two of the a/c vents (Julian’s bedroom and the living room) have heavy thick growth.
While I thought we were experiencing just a really rough season of allergies, we know now the mold has been affecting us. Mostly me and the kids; Abel, to a lesser degree. Julian has asthma and hasn’t been well or even looked well in a couple months. Helena has developed some skin issues, red-ringed eyes, paleness, and a lot of tiredness. Saul was a newborn when we moved in but started having the red-ringed eyes and sneezing and coughing as well. My doctor had told me that babies his age don’t get seasonal allergies... I couldn’t figure out why he seemed so affected. Now I know.
We discovered the worst of the mold in the bedroom where the babies sleep. In fact, the baby’s swing has been parked next to the area of thickest growth and we had no idea.
We had the apartment tested, out of our pocket, and found it positive for a couple strains. I’ll be taking those results to a specialist we are all seeing this week so I can get medical advice/reassurance/treatment as needed based on those mold test findings, the ages & health of the kids, and the duration of time spent living in it.
Our financial crunch is so awful because the flood in September utterly wiped out our savings. We lost almost everything—even items we’re still making payments on— and have spent the last months rebuilding ourselves with donations from folks of furniture, clothing, household items, or gifts of money. For both of these events, our insurance denied us any of our benefits because the water source (of both the flood and this mold issue) is outdoor/rain water instead of an indoor source like plumbing etc.
At this point we will need help cleaning a couple furnishings professionally, packing & moving, and ponying up all the deposits and fees you pay when you rent a house. We are getting out of and away from this apartment complex in which we’ve suffered TWO disasters.
With our savings gone, and hardly any income for January due to Abel staying home to help me with some postpartum illness, plus the fact we paid Feb rent and can’t get it back even though we had to leave due to the mold on Feb 11, we’re strapped. We are stuck in a show/model apartment at a complex across the street from our home as our stuff sits in the moldy apartment. It’s absolute misery to be essentially homeless with kids—babies—and try to keep up daily routines without your home! We’re locked in a battle with the property owner/corporation where they would push us to sign documents harmful to us, holding Feb rent as ransom.
Before we can even address the legal issues, we need to get our kids into a good, safe home. And do some healing and resting. I can’t describe how hard these past five months have been for our family or how all the time and attention the crises have stolen from us during a time in our lives which should be sweet and joyful, like welcoming a new baby should be.
We hope this campaign can help us get our deposits/fees paid for the rental house we wish to apply for, hire movers, and help us recoup both the rent we lose for Feb, as well as the $1k we had to spend ourselves to test the mold so we could help get the kids whatever medical attention they might need.
Thank you for reading about this and helping us through such an unbelievable mess.