Help Find a New Home For My Displaced Grandmother

Victoria VanDyke is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

On 06/22/2020 a tragic fire in the Oakbrook Manor community of Ravena, NY displaced my grandmother, Angela Dutton, from her home. I am creating this GoFundMe in hopes to get help from our community, friends and family. Our goal is to raise enough money to cover the cost of securing a new apartment, security deposit and first months rent, along with buying the essentials to rebuild a home.

At 2:30 AM my grandmother was awoken by pounding on her wall, immediately followed by a police officer rushing in to escort her out. Due to smoke entering the apartment and a fire blazing just on the other side of her bedroom wall, she had no time to gather belong besides a small handbag of clothes. The fire eventually spread into her unit and completely burnt the roof until it caved in covering all her belongings in roofing materials, insulation, nails, and water. Now writing this on 06/27/2020, tenants of this apartment building have yet to be given the okay to enter their homes to try recovering anything that remains from this tragedy. It has been almost a week with multiple nights of rain and we are assuming after all the fire, smoke, and water damage that it will be a complete loss.

Being on a fixed income of survivor benefits from her late husband left her budget very thin. Thin to the point where renters insurance was not opted for. We are raising money mainly to secure shelter for Angela moving forward, and to ease the cost of rebuilding from nothing. She has been provided 7 days at a hotel but after 06/29/2020 she will need a place to call home.

Photography Credit: Thomas Marra