Help Melissa, William, and Jack Find a New Home

Hey everyone. I just want to thank you for taking the time to read about all the issues my family are facing and if you’re able to help, we would appreciate that beyond words. If you’re not able to help, please reshare.

I feel it is important to give just a little back story of how my husband, my 8-year-old boy and myself got to where we are at right now. During the COVID pandemic, our mortgage company Wells Fargo, knowingly and illegally enrolled us in a mortgage forbearance program without my or my husband’s consent. Upon finding it out, I began to try to have us removed from said program and to get our mortgage payments reinstated. Every time I attempted to reach out and start the process with them, they would drag their feet for months-having me complete paperwork multiple times, providing conflicting information, etc.

Long story short, late last year, we came to find out that our house was put up for auction. We were never notified by Wells Fargo and they had continued to send us mortgage statements through out this process. Because there was NO form of any kind of communication, we were forced to find alternative housing within a month’s time.

Fortunately, we were able to secure living arrangements around March of this year that we felt, while weren’t the best, would give us the best option of starting over. Well, that was rather short lived. Within the first month and a half, we began to experience harassment and intimidation from our ‘property manager’. More often than not, he would become extremely verbally aggressive and violent, at one point attempting to corner my husband.

The landlord we were dealing with, despite originally agreeing to and understanding ALL of our pay schedules (my husband’s, myself and our 2 other roommates), staying he would be okay with split rent payments (our rent total was $3000, for reference) suddenly changed his mind. There was even a clause worked into the lease that if the rent was paid after the 15th of the month, a $300 late fee would apply and we communicated to him that we had NO problems paying that late fee because we simply could not change the days we all were paid on.

Not shortly after that, we began to receive multiple “Eviction Notices” and “Right to Cures” a month, that usually included harassing emails/texts from both the landlord and property manager.

After receiving yet another one of these letters, in August, we went up to the Department of Healthy Homes in Kansas City. The home we were living in was NOT up to code, having not only a severely damaged and hole filled roof, severe black mold all throughout the home, faulty and dangerous electrical issues, leaking and plumbing issues and numerous structural issues to name a few. Healthy Homes sent out an inspector who made a report agreeing with the issues we had. They then submitted a list of non-negotiable repairs the landlord must fix and deadlines by which they were to be completed. Keep in mind, these issues were NOT disclosed to us prior to rending and were covered up cosmetically.

By the end of September, there had been no effort whatsoever with repairs. It was about the same time we were contacted by an entirely DIFFERENT property management company, requesting to act as a “mediator” of sorts between us (the tenants) and our landlord. The ultimatum we were given was that the landlord would let us out of our lease, however we had to be out by October 31st and he has refused to return our security deposit. This mediator made promises to us to help us find a new place of residence because of the issues with this landlord and committed to helping us get our security deposit because of the state of the home. However, only a few short weeks after our original meeting with them, they too changed their story and began to harass us via email and despite our constant communications with them, they did nothing to help facilitate in ANY way whether providing resources or other property management companies.

To add insult to injury, our only vehicle was stolen at the City Market in September as well.

As most who’ve ever lived in an apartment, the application and approval process not only takes time but money. I’ve had to close down my business because I do not have a place to do it, so we are reliant on my husband’s income to help facilitate a more stable living environment. I have also began the a job search, but that too takes time. I myself am physically limited to what I’m able to do, as I have moderate to severe disc degeneration in my spine and is a major reason I own my own business. However, I understand our circumstances and am actively looking for a place of employment.

However, his payment schedule falls on the 10th and 25th of the month and now we are in a situation where we can’t even attempt to apply to apartments because the money we did have, had to be used to rent a truck to move our things to a family member’s home.

$5000 would not only help us with application fees, holding fees, deposits and first months rent where ever we end up getting approved, but it would also help us potentially procure a new vehicle that we so desperately need so my husband can continue to drive to his job.

If you’ve made it this far and are able to help financially, anything helps. And if you’re not, even a simple reshare on social media would mean a lot. My husband and I are trying our best to maintain a sense of positivity and hopefulness for our son, who is ADHD and Autistic while also maintaining his routine for him. It’s just been hard on us all. Regardless, I appreciate you taking the time reading and if you do help/reshare, I appreciate you, too.

-Melissa, William and Jack