Help a Creative Family Rebuild After Fire

Hello there!

We are a nerdy and creative family of four that lost our home on our son's 16th birthday (February 4th). At 8:15 am, a second alarm went off, alerting fire and rescue to our address. A fire had started on the third floor of our apartment building. (We lived on the second floor.)

For hours, we watched the heroic firefighters extinguish the large fire in the room directly above mine and my husband's bedroom. We couldn't have asked for better people to work on our home.

When we were allowed back into our apartment, we were met with the lingering scent of smoke on everything and extreme water damage to the ceiling in our bathroom, daughter's room, kitchen, and small bathroom hallway. The ceiling in our bedroom collapsed and destroyed our new mattress, bed frame, collectibles, and handmade keepsakes.

Now our landlord is telling us it will take a year to get the apartment building back up to code, and we cannot live there. He has asked everyone to move out. We have not been given a time frame. He is being very selfish and is only concerned about the money he's losing, not with the fact our family has nowhere to live. He is now claiming he does not have our security deposit and that he doesn't feel that we are owed any further help other than releasing us from our lease.

We are beside ourselves. We are staying with family. We are sleeping on air mattresses. Our clothes are piled into my van with other items we thought we'd need. Everything smells of smoke and fire. We are safe and we are healthy, but everyone is devastated at losing our home that we have been in for over 12 years.

My husband and I have been together for 13 years and married for 6 years. We have two children: a 16-year-old autistic son and an almost 9-year-old daughter. We are a family of movie-goers, board game/video game players, costume makers, book lovers, and creative minds.

Weare hoping to raise money for a new apartment (security deposit and first month's rent), expenses for moving and cleaning/repairing our possessions, dumpster rental and additional funds to replace any clothing, furniture or other items damaged in this crisis.