My name is Dan, and I'm raising funds to help my dad save his house. I wish it didn't have to come to this, but unfortunately, my dad is dealing with some long-term squatters who are actively trying to make him lose his house.

To give some context, my dad's name is Jeff Singleton, and he and his sister Sara Singleton own a 2-family home in downtown Turners Falls, MA. Sara lives in California with her daughters and grandchildren and has been bravely fighting lung cancer for the past 4+ years. Sara put nearly all of her retirement savings into this house, which my dad currently lives in and helps contribute to the mortgage. Both my dad and his sister are in their late seventies and have significant health problems. They rely on tenants to afford the mortgage and have offered below-market rent to individuals in the community since purchasing the home 3 years ago.

Unfortunately, the tenants in the downstairs unit have been increasingly dishonest, hostile, and unwilling to pay their rent on time. For well over a year, these 2 tenants have consistently lied to and manipulated my dad, culminating in over $5,000 of unpaid rent, along with thousands more of unpaid utility bills. This has made it impossible for my dad and his sister to keep up with certain minor but necessary maintenance issues on the property. They have already dumped over $50,000 into the house, as it was a fixer-upper at the time of purchase. Unfortunately, these 2 able-bodied 20-something-year-olds have essentially bled my dad and his sister dry, and they are now struggling to even keep up with the mortgage, let alone home repairs.

Starting in December, the tenants stopped paying their rent completely. We are now in mid-April, and they have racked up a massive debt, with no plan or willingness to pay it off. They consistently lie to my dad and claim to have the money in hand, only to blow him off for weeks and then give him a tiny fraction of what was promised. All of this info is backed up with text and email exports, all with timestamps and metadata included. After yet another broken promise about April's rent, my dad finally went to the housing court and filed to have them evicted.

As if this was not bad enough, these 2 tenants had the audacity to go complain to our town's board of health about some perceived petty code violations. These complaints were never raised prior to now and have only been done so as retaliation for the eviction. Not once did the tenants mention these issues as a reason for why they couldn't/wouldn't pay rent.

To make matters worse, the issues with the house are a direct result of the tenants not paying their agreed portion of the rent on time, which in turn made it impossible for my dad and his sister to keep up with repairs. Furthermore, one of the complaints is that there is a droop to the porch and it is not up to code. These tenants just so happen to have dumped a pile of trash and broken furniture on the porch and refuse to move it. So there would be no way for my 78-year-old dad to fix the porch without picking up THEIR trash. The other complaint is regarding a broken vent in the bathroom, which again, could have been fixed if these tenants were not over $5,000 behind on their rent!

Long story short, my 78-year-old dad who lives on social security is in danger of losing his home because 2 young, able-bodied sociopaths refuse to pay their rent or vacate the unit. If they succeed in their complaint to the board of health, he will have to dump tens of thousands more dollars into this house that he does not have. I am trying to raise $20,000 for the following expenses:

I hate to have to do this, but I don't think it is right for my dad to have to go through this alone. He is a kind, honest, and decent man. He does not deserve to be taken advantage of because of his kindness and age. My dad went above and beyond for these people for well over a year, and now they are turning around and trying to take away his home. Anything helps, no matter how small. Let's fight back against these out-of-town squatters and show them that we stick up for our senior community.

Thank you,

-Dan