I'm a single mother of 3 children who all attend Northlake Community School - Christopher (5th grade), Anthony (3rd grade), and Ivy (kindergarten). If your kids go to this school, you may know or recognize them from the photo. 

We lived in Northlake Park for nearly 4 years until our landlord would not allow us to renew our lease in Summer of 2021. We always had perfect payment history until the pandemic and the economic shutdown. When the kids were home for most of that year, I was alone in my responsibility to homeschool them, and somehow bring in an income at the same time (after losing my ability keep working in real estate, which I'd been doing for 10 years). 

We were told in June 2021 that we had to be out by the end of July, then my son Christopher contracted COVID around July 17, which my landlord was aware of; however, it made no difference. I had been searching for a new place to live and was repeatedly getting denied due to my credit plummeting that year. 

By September, we were forced out of our home. I had to leave all of our furniture, including the kids beds, my entire bedroom, living, dining, work desk, and many of our belongings behind. We have been living out of hotels and AirBnbs ever since, and have no family support in the area. 

You can imagine how my heart sank when I was searching for a place to rent on Airbnb and saw my family’s exact unit advertised there for over $260/night. Everything suddenly made sense. My landlord refused advanced payments, didn’t care that I qualified for $12,000 in COVID rental assistance from the city of Orlando, and certainly didn’t care that my son was ill and we had nowhere else to go.

Regardless, in the time I was home with my kids, I started to create an online business and so I kept working on that to bring in an income from home. Then, right at the beginning of January 2022, I got COVID and became significantly ill.

We are in such need of help right now. I don't know who else to turn to except our community. I am trying so hard to keep a roof over my family's head, feed them, etc. but I became so ill and so worried over the past month.

While my family is currently in dire need of financial support I am also trying to find someone who'd be willing to rent to us in the kids' school district? We really need someone who is willing to look past our credit from last year and give us a chance. I am running out of hope and I'm so scared... but I know I can succeed if we could just get a home and the support we need to get through this rough spot. 

I started this GoFundMe because I was told I could get a place if I paid many months ahead of time, and we have no beds or furniture, so will eventually need to replace the items we lost… but, at this point, I'd be grateful just for a permanent home & address again. 

I just want my kids to have a home again. Their own beds. Safety & security. We’ve been without it for months now and I fully believe I got so sick because of the chronic stress this situation has caused. 

I'm happy to share my business with you, if you want to see what I've been working on and want to continue to grow. Honestly, any help whatsoever is so appreciated. 

I am a very driven, educated woman and I've had great success in the past. I just need a chance to get my family back in a good place after the pandemic hit us so terribly hard. 

Thank you so much for reading this, and please let me know if you have any advice or know someone who may rent to us. It's so important I find a place for my kids soon. I've been crying so much, so worried I am going to fail them after all this time and everything we've been through. 

I promise when we are thriving again, I am going to give back in the most significant ways. Feel free to message me if you need or want to know me, or my family, better. 

Wishing you all great health, happiness, and peace at this time.

Love, Emily