Help me and my 5 girls get running water back.

Hi, my name is Skylar, being a newly single mother of 5 girls, I had to make a big choice for our life. It was to either stay in a very abusive relationship with a criminal and be financially stable, or save mine and my kids lives by leaving and struggle.

I am currently on disability because I was in the hospital for 12 months because of a very bad MRSA bone infection in my right hip which cause me to need a hip replacement (whenever that may happen) because of severe bone deterioration.

However, I also would love to get back to work while I wait for it because there are many things I can still do without having to sit or stand for long periods of time.

However, I've come to a roadblock.

My youngest girl of 19 months needs daycare, the daycare told me in January they would have a spot for her and it's come and gone with no news of a spot becoming available for her yet so I can go back to work.

My landlord has recently just started taking 85% of my monthly income (3150 a month) which leaves me with next to nothing to feed and support my children.

I have tried my absolute best to stay positive and be the best mother I can be during this time, doing the best that I can with what I know how.

Ive come to a bad point where my water got shut off about a month ago which makes things extremely difficult for me to continue to give my kids a stable life that they deserve.

For the past month I've been luckily able to go to my aunts every two to three days (depending on her schedule), to shower and bathe everyone and fill up 12-15 4L water jugs so we can cook, flush the toilet, wash dishes and clean my home.

The chaos this is creating, the depression I feel coming on a bit more everyday, the struggle it is to keep the bathrooms and kitchens clean with no resources except some jugs of water has been so mentally, physically, and emotionally draining. I feel I'm coming to the end of my rope and I'm scared of that happened. I've worked so hard to fight addiction and my own personal issues my whole life, I can't have anything bad happen. I'm fighting for my life today, yesterday and tomorrow.

However it's becoming very draining on me to continue to live this way with no end in sight. Ive reached out in anyway that I know how or that I know of within my city.

How my water got cut off to begin with;

I'm sure some of you are wondering, weĺl how did she get into this situation to begin with.

Simple...pay your bill and you get water. Yes.

However, because I left my ex partner my income drastically fell and paying everything alone has been a burden I didn't think I'd have to face right now.

Ive always had to pay everything even while he was around and he could do what he wanted with his money but he would always buy the groceries and id have 1000 extra, since my landlord started taking that extra 1000 starting January I've been left with 837 a month to pay everything else.

Now, I parked my paid off vehicle and took the insurance off because I couldn't afford to pay it. Ive done everything I can to reduce monthly costs so we can survive.

So with all this being said, budgetting is my best friend. To the penny I may add.

I budget $140 a month to my water bill which works because my water bill is between 3-350 every three months. Which leaves me with the bill being paid in full or a credit on my bill sometimes.

However, because I don't recieve my bills my landlord does i just pay it off my online banking and continue on and if I dont get told the bill has changed or anything like that I'd never know.

Well once it was cut off I phoned water to find out what happened. They said that my water bill has been charged 750-800 every 3 months for a year now, so my little 140 a month didn't even come close to cutting it and the remaining balance would roll over into the next bill bring it up to 2366 now as for some reason they are still charging me sewer charges because I use the jugs and it goes down the drain I guess.

So now my bill is over 2000 and they refuse to restore my water until it's paid in full.

Apparently the lady I spoke to over the phone said it was weird because the landlord account never got any disconnection notices or anything that she could see so he didn't know it was going to be done either.

I asked about why it was so high to begin with she said "oh well you probably have a leak" ...okay so...my question is, "if this is the case why doesn't someone see it's extremely high (including the landlord) and raise some concern about a possible leak as a bill going from consistent 3-350 to 750-8 is quite the jump".

Thinking at bare minimum my landlord would question it as it's his house and could probably (im guessing here) lead to other serious issues other then a high water bill.

However all I got back was crickets noone wanted to take responsibility for it nor did anyone have an answer for me.

Then the lady proceeded to tell me well once you pay the bill in full we will have a technician come out and inspect for leaks and then reimburse any money due to the leaks but it needs to be paid in full and restored before that can happen.

Alright so, I'm stuck with this and noone seems to care in their regards.

So I start reaching out all over, because I'm on disability, neighbour's helping neighbour's and H20 are out of the equation because they only help working people.

So, I reach out to my disability worker and I also got a cfs support worker to help reach out to her and advocate on my behalf as well.

Her final response was "this is an issue between you and water, it has nothing to do with us we can't help you, make payment arrangements." She said this supposedly because starting January they will be paying my rent, hydro and water direct so they won't be helping with anything prior to January.

So obviously that was a bust and all I can afford is 140 a month because I need to feed my kids which I barely am able to buy groceries and if the prices keep going up idk what we will do.

So it would take me approx 2 years to pay it off at that rate unless I'm back to work then maybe a few months.

Child support is out of the equation because my ex did some horrible things to us and others that lead him to jail time.

So here I am...reaching out to anyone who will listen, anyone who is able to.

I had a very hard time even doing this because I don't want to be looked at as a beggar and I feel bad to ask people to give their hard earned money to me and my kids because our life isn't their problem.

However I've gotten so many people contacting me telling me to start a go fund me because it's okay to ask for help sometimes.

I also am worried because my last bit of strength, energy and positivity goes into my children everyday so I will have a really hard time dealing with any kind of back lash.

I really pray that there are people out there that may be able to help us even if it's just sharing this out because you can't help financially, we would appreciate any kind of help from the bottom of our hearts.

Even 1 dollar will make a difference.

So we are asking kindly, from the bottom of our hearts for anyone to help us so we can get water back up and if there is one other thing I could say it would be that, I'm a giver, I've always been a people pleaser and I promise you when I say that I will 150% be paying it forward after.

Ive done 192 christmas hampers for families during covid, always helped single moms and struggling families However I could. Doing homeless drives and donating so I will never forget this and give back 10 times over when I'm able to again.

Thank you so much in advance and anything helps, even just a share.

God bless everyone's hearts. If it wasn't for the creator I wouldn't be here today spreading positivity any way that I can.

Thank you for listening, have a blessed day.