We are raising money to help our parents Ann and Bill Schlotter recover from the inevitable loss of their home due to climate change resulting in bluff erosion that is going to wipe out their home.

In 2016, our parents—both retired government employees and Dad a retired veteran—purchased a 75-year-old house on the bluffs of Lake Erie in Lake City, PA.  They wanted it to be their “forever home” with visions of summers filled with grandchildren visits and creating happy memories.  It needed a lot of work but with a lot of sweat equity, time, and investment, they thought they could make it a beautiful home.

After two years of living through renovations, with roughly 98% completed, they awoke one morning to find nearly 30 feet of their back yard had dropped and slid about a foot.  Alarmed, they reached out to their realtor, the local government, and sought information from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) who monitors the bluffs closely.  Their experts told our parents that the catastrophic ground movement (bluff subsidence) was due to the record snowfall that winter (198 inches), and the subsequent thaw from the natural pressure of the increased groundwater.  The experts said that eventually the bluffs would fall until the ground achieved the desired “angle of repose” (about 35°), taking the entire house with it. 

Our parents looked into fixes, but were told that nothing could be done until the ground quit moving.  And even then, it would be over a million dollars for a temporary fix that “might” last 20 years.

 Since April 2018, they have gone through three separate insurance companies and have had their claims denied, with the first two companies (Erie Insurance and Windsor-Mountjoy Insurance) canceling their policies immediately after denying the claim. All of these companies had ground movement exclusions. 

Further, they have tried to work with their mortgage company (Wells Fargo) to no avail, simply being passed from representative to representative with no solution in sight.  Countless hours on the phone, consultations with lawyers and officials and they are still no closer to a solution then when they started. 

During this lengthy process, our mother reached out to every possible entity for some kind of aid or guidance through this disaster.  The entities included all levels of government, local, state, and federal, along with the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, FEMA, the Department of Veteran Affairs, Disabled American Veterans (because our father is a disabled veteran), the Salvation Army, just to name a few.  All of these entities were sympathetic, but no program or financial assistance was available.

They also looked into moving the house, or taking it apart, but this was not an option because the old house had been built on different foundations through the years.  The cost of moving the house would ultimately have been higher than building a new house from scratch. 

Over the past year, the backyard continued to slide down the cliff, taking trees and large chunks of ground with it.  Now, the bluff has eroded to the back of the house, exposing the house foundation to the 200 foot cliff.  The state and local government is requiring that the house be demolished and hauled away at Mom and Dad’s expense. 

This is their home that they put all their hopes and life savings into. There are 27 years remaining on the mortgage for the house, a house that ultimately must be demolished and removed at their expense before it falls into Lake Erie.  At nearly 70 years old, they cannot afford to rebuild nor carry a second mortgage.  This is not where they envisioned themselves after working hard all their lives…..starting all over.  So now they have a house that needs to be demolished at their expense, the original mortgage, and lost much of their savings they invested in refurbishing the property.

Thank you for taking the time to read our family’s crisis.  This is difficult because our parents are often the ones giving help and not receiving anything in return.  We would greatly appreciate any assistance, and prayers, that you could send their way.

With deepest gratitude,

Jason Sheldrake, Crystal Miller, William Schlotter V