Since the pandemic began, your generosity has helped provide rent payments for 345 families, preventing over 700 children from experiencing homelessness.
Tasha, a Bellevue resident, and mother of two children, shared how her family ended up in immediate need of rental assistance.
Here is what Tasha shared about her experience with Bellevue LifeSpring:
Before the pandemic, I was living paycheck to paycheck. At one point, I was even working four jobs just to make ends meet, which was exhausting. I’m raising two children on my own without any help. There is no family that I can turn to for support. I am an only child with zero cousins, and my parents both passed away a very long time ago from cancer. They were both young and died just six months apart. My only family is my two children.
I relocated my little family to Bellevue from California four years ago, without knowing a single soul. I used up 100% of my savings to get us here so that my children could have a better education than they were getting in California. Being in a new area without any support network has been difficult. Unfortunately, I have zero savings, so any unexpected costs, like a medical bill or a car repair, cause me to fall behind on bills like rent.
When COVID-19 began and schools and businesses started to shut down, the company I worked for did a big reorganization. I remember it was on a Friday, at the end of the day, that my bosses informed me they were letting me go because of budget cuts. I had zero notice. My company didn’t even allow me to get paid out on the sick days I had accrued. If they had, I would have had at least one week’s worth of pay which would have helped a little.
I was now out of work and had to seek out unemployment benefits. The unemployment office informed me that they were very far behind on claims because of the large number of requests coming in. They told me that it could take six months to receive benefits! Unfortunately, the help I ended up receiving was not nearly enough to live off of.
Due to all this, I fell behind on our rent and utilities. Although there is an eviction moratorium and they are not turning off the power at this time, knowing that I owe and seeing the past due bills come to my home is extremely stressful.
Amongst this very dark, stressful, and sad time in my life, I was referred to Bellevue LifeSpring. By the grace of God and this wonderful organization, they were able to come through and help with my back rent. I am so deeply thankful to this organization for helping people in need like me.
I strongly believe in paying it forward. I very much look forward to the next time in my life where I can give back and help others in any way possible. Thank you again so much to Bellevue LifeSpring!
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Thanks to your support, Tasha was able to get caught up on her rent payments and avoid homelessness. Tasha’s story is all too familiar for many of Bellevue’s low-income families. Since COVID-19 hit our community, requests from families for Bellevue LifeSpring’s rent assistance have tripled.
Give where you live today and help us reach our goal to raise $1.5 million to prevent hunger and homelessness for Bellevue children through the end of the school year.
