Help for the Randolph Family
Donation protected
I'm raising money to help stabilize the Randolph family, which includes 8 children ranging in age from 16 years old to 5 1/2 days. They have been without a home for much of the past three years.
I learned that they were losing their home with only 5 days notice and nowhere to go, so I offered them shelter and helped them find a new home.
Their immediate crisis is over, but it's a big family with low income, who have had some very rough years, and they are a long way from being self-sufficient. They are in line for more resources, but need help bridging the gap.
This is an opportunity to provide children with a better future.
The money raised through this fundraiser will go toward these items, ordered by priority:
+ Bridge the family's monthly rent and utility shortfall until they receive section 8 housing.
+ Food
+ Sundry items
+ Basic furniture such as mattresses for the kids and storage for their clothes
+ Clothing
+ A cheap car and insurance
+ Educational and vocational opportunity
+ Medical expenses including mental healthcare
If you'd like to learn more about the Randolph family, I wrote a more complete narrative, below.
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This Fall I met, and fell in love with, a crazy gang of semi-feral kids who had been roaming the neighborhood streets.
A few years ago, I moved to the Iron Triangle neighborhood in Richmond, which is a bit notorious. It's the type of place that used to be described as a 'war zone' although in reality it's mostly just low-income folks trying to get by. I had fallen in love with a big live/work space there where I wanted to create some projects. But also I feel comfortable in communities like this and enjoy the outlaw spirit of sharing and looking out for one another that can take hold.
The kids had stopped at my security gate to say hi to my rabbit, so I opened my front door and said hi to the kids. My workspace is a fortress-like former church made of cinder block and now filled with bikes, musical instruments, art, and various projects including a skate bowl in the back yard. The children, looking inside, issued a collective shriek and ran inside.
I had been living here, alone and mostly lonely, while working toward some crazy, vaguely-defined vision of a communal space for creating stuff, which gives me joy. These children validated that vision x 1000, bringing the space alive with their joy, enthusiasm, crazy humor, and creative spirit. We became instant soul mates, making projects in the kitchen, riding bmx bikes in the skate bowl, banging out rhythms on the drum set, getting acrylic paint absolutely everywhere. Their reckless creativity and lust for life inspired me to step up my own game.
The kids had no cell phones or structured activities. It could have been 1975, how they moved around the neighborhood with no helmets on an ever-changing collection of junked bicycles. My workshop became their repair facility where they constantly swapped parts on bikes that I slowly realized were never obtained legitimately. They rode their bikes with the same gusto and daring with which they lived, always wheelies and power slides. My kindred spirits. The studio became one of their neighborhood touch points and they would usually stop by after school at some point, sometimes for a minute, sometimes until the sun set over the skate bowl.
At the core of my new little posse were the Randolph brothers:
+ Elijah aka Eli, 6' 2" 240 at 15 years old is the big brother, relaxed with a dry sense of humor and an athlete on the high school football and basketball teams.
+ Isreal aka Jacob aka Foxy, at 13 years old the fastest runner, fastest rider, best at wheelies, rightfully cocky.
+ Emmanuel aka Manny at 11 he is sensitive, raw, earnest, brave, destructive, and wickedly funny.
+ And finally Ezekiel aka EZ at 7 is the bright, funny, wise little peace maker riding on the foot pegs of his big brothers' bikes.
Eventually I would meet their sister Izeema aka Zeema aka Zee at 14 smart, artistic, and poised beyond her years, usually with her little sister Ettika aka Ocean aka Coco, age 4 and the biggest bad ass of the bunch.
I was initially charmed by the brothers' enthusiasm for snacks, but I soon realized that they were always, always hungry on a deeper level than most kids. I also noticed that they were always under-dressed for the winter weather. And that Foxy got suspended from school for fighting a kid who called him homeless, even though they lived in a blue house.
So I upped the snack budget. The kids started stopping by for snacks before school, so I started packing lunches for them. And sometimes they would even stop by well after dark, hungry. Christmas was an opportunity to spoil them a tiny bit and send everyone home with candy and toys and I also included an introductory card for their mom, so she would know how to contact me.
One Monday in February, the kids told me that they would be moving in five days. Each kid had a different story behind where and why, with the common thread being that they had to leave their house on Friday. When I saw the younger boys before school on Friday, I asked if it were true that they were moving today. "Yes." "Where are you going?" "I don't know." "Where are you going after school today?" "I don't know." "How will you meet up with your mom?" "I don't know." "We aren't supposed to go back to the house after school." I tracked down Eli at the bus stop on his way to high school and asked the same questions. Finally he said, "Storn - if I knew I would tell you." Heavy.
Later that morning, the mom's boyfriend, who I knew from sight but hadn't met, rang my doorbell and asked if I knew what was going on. Mom had been paying for a sublet with cash. The person she was paying hadn't been paying the landlord so suddenly they had five days to move. Before then, the family had been living at the Bay Area Rescue Mission, which is a shelter near my house. The family was not welcome back because the two middle boys misbehaved too much during the time the family had lived there. If you can imagine an 11 year old, and his family being turned away from shelter because he was too naughty. They have family in the neighborhood, but there is deep intergenerational poverty and no one had room for a very pregnant mom and six of her kids.
I had a thought.. I was headed to the mountains that weekend with friends, so I offered up my home to buy the family a few days. I had fun in the mountains and returned Sunday night to a very clean home and a pile of the most beautiful, hand-crafted thank you cards.
I didn't hear from Kuranda, the mom, on Monday so on Tuesday I reached out to see if they were okay. "No we are not okay." They had stayed two nights in a motel and were down to zero dollars and zero cents with nowhere to go and a winter storm rolling in. I invited them to stay with me and offered to help find a solution. Suddenly I had seven roommates in my one bedroom home.
The next three weeks were both crazy and beautiful.
I spent the weekends driving around first Redding, and then Sacramento looking to find a big enough rental that they could (mostly) afford. I spent the evenings shopping for all of the million things that a family of eight needs when it's down to its last threads. I noticed that Manny was barefoot during the storm. Why? His socks were wet. His one pair of socks. No one had tooth brushes. EZ's shoes were four sizes too big and would fly off if he kicked a soccer ball. We made trip after trip to Target for these essentials. I have never seen children so excited to buy new underwear. And oh my gosh they ate so much food!
On the beautiful side, I was suddenly immersed in a giant family and I caught a lot of love. The little ones, EZ and Ocean and sometimes Manny would curl up with me at night to read a book or play guitar. The boys were so thirsty for a male role model and eager to learn new things. Getting to know Kuranda was a pleasant surprise, I learned that she was smart and funny and sweet. She has been a very willing partner with me in improving the conditions for these kids.
I also learned the family's story.
I learned that when she was growing up in Reno, Kuranda's teenage sister disappeared without a trace. No mention in the local news, no help from the police, just another missing Black girl until last year when a cold case detective identified her body. That's how Kuranda ended up in Richmond, looking for her sister.
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/crime/2024/08/14/missing-girl-case-marcia-shirree-thomas/74634241007/
I learned how Kuranda first became pregnant as a teenager by a married man at her church who professed his love but didn't support the children he created. I learned that she married and briefly joined the middle class before her husband descended into drug abuse. I learned how Kuranda's god brother, an uncle figure to her children, was shot to death in the driveway of her home while the kids played in the front yard.
The family's stability ended with that murder. There was blood in the driveway and the children were afraid to return home. The family bounced around, ending up at the Rescue Mission until Kuranda finally found a cash sublet she could afford, here in The Iron Triangle.
February was a very busy month, but I finally secured a four-bedroom rental house in West Sacramento. I had to sign the lease myself. Kuranda is an all-cash shadow, financially, and I found out that her presence on an application would sink it immediately. When I was in the mountains that first weekend, I told a good friend about the family and he decided to talk to his wife about splitting the expense with me of setting them up with first and last month rent plus some necessities. We estimated a total cost of $7000 and they pitched in. (Thank you Brad and Jenni!)
Kuranda is on the waiting list for section 8 housing, and she is supposedly a high priority case. However, with her large family there are not many options available. With this fundraiser, we are trying to bridge the gap until section 8 housing arrives, hopefully within the next six months.
The shortfall between rent + utilities and what Kuranda can afford is roughly $800/month, which is on my shoulders presently. It's a tight enough balance that more money for rent equals less money for food and there are a million other pent-up expenses.
The money raised through this fundraiser will go toward these items, ordered by priority:
+ The monthly rent and utility shortfall
+ More and better food
+ Sundry items
+ Basic furniture such as mattresses for the kids and storage for their clothes
+ Clothing
+ A cheap car and insurance
+ Educational and vocational opportunity
+ Medical expenses including mental healthcare
In the joyous news department, my new baby godson Eden Mateo Jedediah Storm Jesus Randolph was born at 6:30 on March 20th. One day later he went.. home.
I've now accepted a deeply personal, ongoing commitment to this family, to help find as much opportunity for the children as possible in the coming years. It is dicey - they share some very deep trauma, they've been running wild for years, and some of the kids are very behind educationally. There's no guarantee that it'll turn out well for everyone. But then again, none of us gets that guarantee. The best we can do is try our best!
Thank you, thank you for reading and sharing!
Storn
PS Feel free to reach out with physical donations. They can use books, working bikes, bike helmets, warm clothes, linens.
Organizer
Storn White
Organizer
Richmond, CA