A little Help.
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My entire life, my family hasn't had the best life. I'm going to try to summarize this, as best as I can. Or maybe I’ll just start from the beginning.
My family has always lived pay check by pay check, and my parents did everything they could to keep food on the table and have a roof over our heads. I would have never made a GoFundMe because it is embarrassing, we know this. But we needed help and I don’t think there is anything wrong with help. People will obviously look at this page and say, “not my problem” or try to compare my problems with their own by saying something like, “my parents came here and had nothing but worked for what they have now.” And that’s great but sometimes people mess up and under certain circumstances, money is lost.
The beginning of our financial decline was in 2008. My mother was bouncing around from job to job while my father had a solid one. He had worked for a company, Compac for 20 something years. Around the year of ’07 my father had broken his knee and his back gave out which equaled time off work. So, we got behind on some bills. He finally went back to work at, Compac, but if anyone remembers in 2008 the economy dropped. The company was shut down and my father was left with no job. At the time my mother had a low paying job so she was the only one paying bills.
So, the first house we ever bought (not rented) was foreclosed on. This is when we rented out the house I was currently at. It took time for my father to find a job and when he did, it was a janitor job at my middle school. At first it was low pay until about 3-4 years when he went to the High School and his pay was raised. So, we were fine for a little bit until his knee went again. He had to take time off and we lost a lot of money. We got behind on so many bills that it was hard to catch up, especially with interest. When his knee began to heal a little more, he started to work at my landlord’s junkyard to help pay for rent and have a bit of pocket change. But the mental abuse our landlord inflicted on my father is disgusting. He would scream in my father’s face calling him names and saying he is doing his job wrong etc. This junkyard is also where my father’s addiction began.
I was angry at my father for years, even after when he went to rehab. But as I grew older, I forgave him because I understood. His life was terrible and he tried and tried to take care of us the best he could but there was too much money to owe. He lost the janitor job and went to rehab which again equaled more time off and less income. So, at this time we only had my mother’s pay check which isn’t much. She had to take loans out which put us behind even more with money. He then came back and has been sober for 2 years now. He recently got a new job with a good pay. However, that pay means nothing considering it all goes to rent. My father’s entire pay check goes to our landlord as well as half of my mothers. The rest of my mother’s paycheck goes to insurance and electric.
I do not think many people understand what debt is or understand what it’s like to provide for a family when so many bad things happen. Everyone is so ready to jump and call us beggers or trash. All I am asking for is a little help, is that so wrong? We have never once asked for help but this time it’s different, we have no home and no family.
My landlord had always wanted his payments in cash so he never kept track of what we gave him each month. And were we wrong for allowing this? Yes, 100%. But we are quiet people that don’t want any problems. We lived there for ten years and he never once fixed anything in that house. After Hurricane Sandy he tried to put a generator in our house but it blew all our circuits and my father had to buy a new fridge, oven and microwave (he never fixed it and he should have bought that stuff), the basement was flooded and we had to tear the rug out (he never fixed it), cabinets fell off our walls (he never fixed it), the shower in the big bathroom doesn't work (he never fixed it), Our radiator is too old (he never fixed it), the oil pipe is so old that it is rotting (he never fixed it), the house was never inspected which should be done once a year, and he hooked his sons water pipe up to ours which is illegal and we have been paying for a little bit of his water. He hasn't done anything for us and yet expects so much money that we do not have. It is hard to find a house in NJ for cheap rent so now we are looking at PA homes. Yet we don't have over 3,000 for a house right now in our lives, plus the electric bill which was also shut off recently. Also, some people won't give us a home because they might talk to our current landlord who hates us and my parents credit isn't the best considering my father lost his job.
We are just asking help, that is all. We never wanted it to come to this and we are not bad people.
My family has always lived pay check by pay check, and my parents did everything they could to keep food on the table and have a roof over our heads. I would have never made a GoFundMe because it is embarrassing, we know this. But we needed help and I don’t think there is anything wrong with help. People will obviously look at this page and say, “not my problem” or try to compare my problems with their own by saying something like, “my parents came here and had nothing but worked for what they have now.” And that’s great but sometimes people mess up and under certain circumstances, money is lost.
The beginning of our financial decline was in 2008. My mother was bouncing around from job to job while my father had a solid one. He had worked for a company, Compac for 20 something years. Around the year of ’07 my father had broken his knee and his back gave out which equaled time off work. So, we got behind on some bills. He finally went back to work at, Compac, but if anyone remembers in 2008 the economy dropped. The company was shut down and my father was left with no job. At the time my mother had a low paying job so she was the only one paying bills.
So, the first house we ever bought (not rented) was foreclosed on. This is when we rented out the house I was currently at. It took time for my father to find a job and when he did, it was a janitor job at my middle school. At first it was low pay until about 3-4 years when he went to the High School and his pay was raised. So, we were fine for a little bit until his knee went again. He had to take time off and we lost a lot of money. We got behind on so many bills that it was hard to catch up, especially with interest. When his knee began to heal a little more, he started to work at my landlord’s junkyard to help pay for rent and have a bit of pocket change. But the mental abuse our landlord inflicted on my father is disgusting. He would scream in my father’s face calling him names and saying he is doing his job wrong etc. This junkyard is also where my father’s addiction began.
I was angry at my father for years, even after when he went to rehab. But as I grew older, I forgave him because I understood. His life was terrible and he tried and tried to take care of us the best he could but there was too much money to owe. He lost the janitor job and went to rehab which again equaled more time off and less income. So, at this time we only had my mother’s pay check which isn’t much. She had to take loans out which put us behind even more with money. He then came back and has been sober for 2 years now. He recently got a new job with a good pay. However, that pay means nothing considering it all goes to rent. My father’s entire pay check goes to our landlord as well as half of my mothers. The rest of my mother’s paycheck goes to insurance and electric.
I do not think many people understand what debt is or understand what it’s like to provide for a family when so many bad things happen. Everyone is so ready to jump and call us beggers or trash. All I am asking for is a little help, is that so wrong? We have never once asked for help but this time it’s different, we have no home and no family.
My landlord had always wanted his payments in cash so he never kept track of what we gave him each month. And were we wrong for allowing this? Yes, 100%. But we are quiet people that don’t want any problems. We lived there for ten years and he never once fixed anything in that house. After Hurricane Sandy he tried to put a generator in our house but it blew all our circuits and my father had to buy a new fridge, oven and microwave (he never fixed it and he should have bought that stuff), the basement was flooded and we had to tear the rug out (he never fixed it), cabinets fell off our walls (he never fixed it), the shower in the big bathroom doesn't work (he never fixed it), Our radiator is too old (he never fixed it), the oil pipe is so old that it is rotting (he never fixed it), the house was never inspected which should be done once a year, and he hooked his sons water pipe up to ours which is illegal and we have been paying for a little bit of his water. He hasn't done anything for us and yet expects so much money that we do not have. It is hard to find a house in NJ for cheap rent so now we are looking at PA homes. Yet we don't have over 3,000 for a house right now in our lives, plus the electric bill which was also shut off recently. Also, some people won't give us a home because they might talk to our current landlord who hates us and my parents credit isn't the best considering my father lost his job.
We are just asking help, that is all. We never wanted it to come to this and we are not bad people.
Organizer and beneficiary
Avalon DiBernard
Organizer
Rockaway Township, NJ
Suzanne DiBernard
Beneficiary
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