My name is Sylvia and I live in Washington County with my amazing children: Fabian, Diego, Elisa, Lunah, Bella, and little Esmy. I work at a local nonprofit helping families transitioning out of homelessness and other difficult situations get furniture and household items to turn their empty houses into stable homes. Right now, I’m going through a similar transition and I’m hoping you, my community will step up to help me and my family.

Two years ago, after experiencing discrimination from our landlord, my kids and I had to leave our housing and temporarily stay in a homeless shelter. After 6 weeks in shelter, my case manager helped us find an apartment with a housing voucher and we moved in. I worked a night job in caregiving to keep up with the bills. Unfortunately, we had been placed on an upper floor, and my neighbors made noise complaints about my kids. I asked to be moved to a downstairs unit, but instead, the landlord told us to leave.

We are now staying temporarily with a friend - 3 bedroom house with my kids and her family - 10 people total. It’s a very difficult living situation for everyone.

I have tried to apply for multiple apartments but since I am still paying off debt from a previous housing situation, we keep getting denied. The barrier of debt and the cost of a deposit and first and last month’s rent is a big barrier for us. I am working full-time at Community Warehouse as a Program Coordinator and my son just got a full-time job as a delivery contractor for Community Warehouse, but even with our combined incomes, we can’t get ahead of that barrier.

If we are able to pay off the debt and afford the up-front costs to enter housing, me and my kids will be in a stable place. We just need a chance!

Our goal is $7,900!

$4,000 for paying off housing debt

$1,000 for deposit on new apartment

$2,900 for first and last month’s rent with housing voucher

If you can’t spare any cash, please help us out by sharing this story. Here’s something you can repost with the link:

I hope you will help Sylvia Lopez and her kids get stable housing! If you don’t know Sylvia and are just seeing this story, if you’re concerned about the homeless crisis and want to make a difference in your community, this is a way you can directly help.

#stablehousingforSylvia

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