The Grenier Family Rescue Fund
Donation protected
Our country has a homeless crisis on its hands. The further one is on the path towards homelessness, the more impossible it becomes to reverse the predicament.
Meet Zak Grenier, his partner Winter Rain, and his son Bryson Grenier. After being illegally removed on five minutes notice from Winter’s family’s home and having their belongings destroyed, they lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Zak was a construction worker, performer, and engineer. Winter was a barista and exotic dancer. Bryson, nineteen, was a cook and is a musician. They have been homeless for eighteen months. Now, Zak and Bryson work as handymen for a storage company and others on the side. Winter is also an artist and rescues animals, getting cats spayed and neutered, and finding them homes. Having grown up in a violent and abusive household, Winter’s animals provide necessary psychological support that allows her to feel secure. In addition, Winter used to babysit her godson three to four days a week, supplementing her income, but has been unable to since becoming homeless.
Six months before the pandemic, the three started living out of two pre-1960s trailers that were donated to them. They were parking on a property they were fixing up, but were kicked off and forced into state parks during the off-season, which cost them over $2200 a month. Nine months ago, they were given permission to park their trailers on one of the storage lots at which Zak and Bryson work. Originally meant as a short-term temporary residency, they are long past due having to remove their trailers from the lot. The lot is not meant to be lived on and does not have a proper water line, electric line, or waste facilities. Recently, the Health Department threatened action, and now the owner of the storage company needs them out immediately.
With no ability to store food or cook, they must rely on instant or ready-to-eat meals, which are vastly more expensive, not to mention extremely lacking in nutritional value. Without a washer or dryer, they must take their laundry to the nearest laundromat, which is so busy they often have to wait hours for the machines to become available, stealing valuable time from their working hours. It takes them nearly two hours to wash and dry a blanket at their laundromat, and costs about $15. All together, they spend over $2000 per month just to survive homeless, money that could be spent paying a mortgage for an RV lot. However, the high initial down payment requirements for those options make them untenable.
This family needs a place to call home. No more temporary living situations — a permanent solution is needed, and now. They all work, full time. They have incomes. But work and income does not guarantee everyone a place to live in this country. To support their animal rescue efforts and secure their ability to offer emergency shelter in their spare trailer to friends in unstable or abusive living situations, they cannot simply rent an apartment. With a stable place to live, Winter would also be able to begin babysitting her godson once again. Between their incomes, they can easily handle the month-to-month costs of owning a lot for their trailers, or a rent-to-own property. What they need from us is help with the initial costs: either the closing costs for an RV lot, or the initial down-payment required for a rent-to-own property.
What we all have here is an opportunity to save a family from homelessness. Let’s come together and prevent all three of them from living permanently on streets, in tents — conditions that our society’s brutal system forces on far too many.
See their story here: https://youtu.be/thc7p1ebDDo
Meet Zak Grenier, his partner Winter Rain, and his son Bryson Grenier. After being illegally removed on five minutes notice from Winter’s family’s home and having their belongings destroyed, they lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Zak was a construction worker, performer, and engineer. Winter was a barista and exotic dancer. Bryson, nineteen, was a cook and is a musician. They have been homeless for eighteen months. Now, Zak and Bryson work as handymen for a storage company and others on the side. Winter is also an artist and rescues animals, getting cats spayed and neutered, and finding them homes. Having grown up in a violent and abusive household, Winter’s animals provide necessary psychological support that allows her to feel secure. In addition, Winter used to babysit her godson three to four days a week, supplementing her income, but has been unable to since becoming homeless.
Six months before the pandemic, the three started living out of two pre-1960s trailers that were donated to them. They were parking on a property they were fixing up, but were kicked off and forced into state parks during the off-season, which cost them over $2200 a month. Nine months ago, they were given permission to park their trailers on one of the storage lots at which Zak and Bryson work. Originally meant as a short-term temporary residency, they are long past due having to remove their trailers from the lot. The lot is not meant to be lived on and does not have a proper water line, electric line, or waste facilities. Recently, the Health Department threatened action, and now the owner of the storage company needs them out immediately.
With no ability to store food or cook, they must rely on instant or ready-to-eat meals, which are vastly more expensive, not to mention extremely lacking in nutritional value. Without a washer or dryer, they must take their laundry to the nearest laundromat, which is so busy they often have to wait hours for the machines to become available, stealing valuable time from their working hours. It takes them nearly two hours to wash and dry a blanket at their laundromat, and costs about $15. All together, they spend over $2000 per month just to survive homeless, money that could be spent paying a mortgage for an RV lot. However, the high initial down payment requirements for those options make them untenable.
This family needs a place to call home. No more temporary living situations — a permanent solution is needed, and now. They all work, full time. They have incomes. But work and income does not guarantee everyone a place to live in this country. To support their animal rescue efforts and secure their ability to offer emergency shelter in their spare trailer to friends in unstable or abusive living situations, they cannot simply rent an apartment. With a stable place to live, Winter would also be able to begin babysitting her godson once again. Between their incomes, they can easily handle the month-to-month costs of owning a lot for their trailers, or a rent-to-own property. What they need from us is help with the initial costs: either the closing costs for an RV lot, or the initial down-payment required for a rent-to-own property.
What we all have here is an opportunity to save a family from homelessness. Let’s come together and prevent all three of them from living permanently on streets, in tents — conditions that our society’s brutal system forces on far too many.
See their story here: https://youtu.be/thc7p1ebDDo
Organizer and beneficiary
David Yama
Organizer
Seattle, WA
Zak Grenier
Beneficiary
