Smith Family Support Fund

Normally, we are the first ones to help others when we can. Sadly, it is our turn to swallow our pride and ask for help ourselves.

I'm updating our story here to reflect our current situation. This was started in 2017 when I was told I needed to have both knees replaced & we needed help with the loss in income I would take with the surgery that never happened due to losing health insurance.

As most of you know, Ken lost his 7-year battle with cancer on May 10th, 2022. That was the beginning of a downward turn in our situation. We found out the apartment had bed bugs at the beginning of June. We failed despite our best attempts to get the apartment ready for treatment. On July 1st, we were served with an eviction summons. Due to the severity of the bed bugs, we had to flee the apartment & spent time in a hotel from mid-July until Labor Day weekend, when a friend & former co-worker opened up her & her partner's home to us. While I had hoped to be in a place of our own by now, sadly, that hasn't materialized. That is partially due to us not having any money saved up for down payment/move-in costs and partially due to everyone wanting 3 x the rent in income, which puts us looking for a place for $1000 or less that will take all of us (myself, Dawn, & Thumper, our cat).

If we don't find something soon, we will have to look for places outside the county. If we have to look outside the area, it will mean starting over with a new job, as I probably won't be able to continue working the two that I have now (one full-time and one part-time). I hate to do this, as both employers were so wonderful to me during the times I was out due to Ken being in the hospital, passing away, & the issues with the apartment.

Back to the apartment - we moved out by the agreed-upon date & time, so the eviction should not be on our record. However, the management of the apartment complex has notified me that I owe over $10,000 for move-out costs, back rent, the amount of rent they are losing while riding the apartment of the bed bugs, etc. So there is another reason I can't save money right now. Not only am I trying to catch up on bills, but I also have to make payments on the new debt or have all future rent applications denied because I owe the previous landlord money.

So I could use either prayer for a miracle to be able to stay here or financial help. If you know of a landlord who might be willing to work with us, please let me know.

Thank you all for anything you can do.