Hi, my name is Kathi Whitaker, and I am writing this as a mother who is exhausted, scared, and asking for help because our family is running out of options.

Less then a year ago, on Super Bowl Sunday, over 50 bullets were fired through our home, entering through the front and exiting out the back. We lost our home that day, but we also lost our sense of safety. That kind of terror stays with you. We are still traumatized from surviving something no family ever should.

Despite the fear and heartbreak, we refused to give up. We worked hard and were able to purchase another home through the Detroit Land Bank, believing this would finally give us a chance to heal.

Before we could even move in, that home was broken into and completely stripped. The windows were stolen. The bathroom was torn out. The furnace and generator were taken. Even our dog was stolen. The home was left unlivable. Experiencing this loss so soon after surviving gun violence has been devastating and retraumatizing.

With extreme winter weather and no access to the thousands of dollars needed to make the home livable, we are desperate . We have reached out to every resource we can, and we are still waiting for help.

We are sharing photos and videos so people can see the reality of what we are facing. We are not asking for extras—we are asking for help to survive and to finally have a safe place to call home.

If you are able to donate, share, or even say a prayer for our family, it means more than we can express. Please help us rebuild what was taken from us.

Thank you for reading and for caring.