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Helping Martin County residents
 House
of Hope's
Financial Assistance program typically helps clients
who are
low-wage workers, low fixed-income seniors, single
parents, and people facing a sudden life crisis
(divorce, abandonment, abuse, death in the family, major
medical issue, etc.). In today’s economic climate, many clients are newly unemployed
middle-class wage earners who have exhausted their
personal resources and are now desperately in need of
help.
Each case is heartbreaking. Each represents a life in
crisis; children at risk. The needs all too often outweigh the funds available,
even with assistance from other agency and church
partners.
Donations and grants make House of Hope
assistance
possible.
Please help make
sure no one falls through the cracks.
| Cases of Hope from
our client files: |
|
"Dale" is a 43-year-old man who came to House of
Hope for assistance with food. He had lost his
job and had been unable to find new employment.
With no family or close friends in the area, he
eventually became homeless and was living on the
streets. He became involved with House of Hope's
case management program when he was seeking
assistance with applying for food stamps. Our
case managers helped him with the application,
and he was approved for $200 in food stamps.
Case managers later helped him to apply to
Assurance Wireless so that he could receive a
free cell phone and free monthly minutes. He
later was able to use this phone to get in
contact with his family back home and to locate
employment. He is now employed and is no longer
living on the streets. |
|
"Karen," 56, recently sent this thank you note
to House of Hope: "I have recently been
blessed to receive a “gift” of $400 from your
organization so that I could pay my overdue rent
and not be evicted. I have been struggling with
some major health issues and after working all
my life, taking full care of my two children,
including paying their college tuition and never
asking for a penny in the way of help, I now
find myself on disability – having lost my home
of 15 years, had my car re-possessed and
completely depleting my savings, retirement and
borrowed money from family and friends, while I
waited so long for the disability answer. I want
to say how much I appreciate your assistance of
$400 – I felt like I could breathe again! The
$400 felt like $4 million." |
|
"Roberta," 26, has three children and had been a
past client of House of Hope. Since her previous
crisis, she had managed to find a job as a home
health aide, but her car broke down and was let
go because she did not have reliable
transportation. She has since found a new
position, but can only work a few hours a week
because of her lack of transportation. Her
paychecks can't keep up with the bills, so she
came to House of Hope for help with her FPL bill
of $138, which we paid. She plans to use her tax
return to get a car so that she can increase the
amount of hours she can work. |
|
"Carol" is a 20-year-old single mother of a
2-year-old boy. Her income and expenses balance
each other out every month at about $1,200. So,
when she was faced with a car repair bill of
$423, it presented a major setback -- making her
short on her rent by $300 for the month. She
came to House of Hope for help, and we were able
to pay the shortfall and keep the family out of
crisis. |
|
"April," 28, is working two jobs -- full-time at
a child care center and part-time at a grocery
store. She also is pregnant with her first
child. It is a high-risk pregnancy, requiring
April to see specialists to receive proper care.
The baby's father is not doing anything to help,
and April has no health insurance. With the
increase in medical bills, she was going to be
unable to pay her rent for November. House of
Hope will pay the rent of $750, but April and
her child-to-be will be facing many more
problems in the future. As her pregnancy
progresses and she becomes unable to work, it is
likely she will be able to qualify for benefits
such as food stamps and Medicaid. But for now,
her income is deemed "too high." |
|
"Matthew," 42, is the single father of a
9-year-old girl. He works selling insurance, but
his base salary was reduced in January and his
commission was already low because of the
economy. He came to House of Hope for help with
his electric bill -- $96 was "past due" and put
him in danger of having his power cut off. House
of Hope paid the bill -- offering
emergency assistance -- and also is screening
Matthew for long-term assistance and guidance
under HOH's case management program. |
|
"Melanie" is a 58-year-old Jensen Beach woman
who lost her job when the laws governing
qualifications for her position were changed.
She took a course in a new field and opened her
own business in July 2009, but was forced to
close in October 2009 after breaking her foot in
an accident. She is currently working for the
Census and looking for more employment. Jensen
Beach branch manager Kathy Foster calls her a
"real go-getter" and has confidence in her
future. In the mean time, "Melanie" has run
through her savings and needs assistance; House
of Hope will provide $200 toward her rent. |
|
"Marie," 51, and her husband, "Elliott," 54, were
both employed in construction. Elliott became
sick in November of 2009 and could no longer
work. By February, Marie had to leave her job to
take care of Elliott full-time. Her husband
eventually entered hospice care and died around
the time that Marie came to House of Hope for
help. Marie said she had some job opportunities
lined up, but needed help with her rent to help
her get by until she started working again.
House of Hope paid the $500 in rent that she
requested. |
|
"Allison" is a 27-year-old woman with two young
children. She has been employed as a prep cook
at a local bakery/deli for the past three years
and had been managing OK. However, she recently
missed some work because of illness and then her
daughter was hospitalized for a few days. With
the extra expenses of medication and the
temporary expiration of her food stamps, Allison
faced a crisis: How was she going to pay her
rent? She came to House of Hope for assistance,
and we were able to pay $400 toward her rent and
have also recommended Allison take part in our
case management program to work long-term toward
a more stable future. |
|
"Rose," 49, and her 18-year-old daughter share a
home. Rose had been working for five months at a
local grocery store when she was diagnosed with
breast cancer. At the same time, her daughter
was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst, which has
been treated successfully. Rose's prognosis,
however, is not good. A charitable group has
helped Rose obtain treatment and she has
returned to work, but she has incurred many
out-of-pocket travel and medical expenses.
Rose's daughter works part-time at a restaurant,
but her hours keep getting reduced. House of
Hope was able to provide $500 toward their rent,
and will attempt to offer longer-term help to
the family through the case management program
-- perhaps helping the daughter to find better
employment. |
|
"Roger" is a 53-year-old man who has been
resourceful during his unemployment. To expand
his opportunities as a truck driver, Roger took
classes to obtain his Class A and Class B
commercial driver's licenses. Workforce Solutions
also has helped him with his resume and job
search. Meanwhile, he had been sharing an
apartment with his son, but his son moved out
and Roger could no longer afford the rent. He
became homeless -- living out of his car --
for about three weeks before finding another,
more affordable apartment. He could pay the
deposit, but he needed help with the first-month's
rent. House of Hope and St. Vincent de Paul paid $250 each to help him. |
|
Here's one of the most unusual cases in House of
Hope history: We helped an elderly couple --
he's 86, she's 81 -- get rid of a 40-pound hive
that bees had built behind their air
conditioning unit. They live in a mobile home
park and were being threatened with eviction if
they didn't get rid of it. HOH negotiated with
an exterminator and paid $285 to remove the
hive. |
|
"Becky," the mother of two young boys, had been
trying to extract herself from an abusive
relationship. She moved in to a new apartment,
but she did not have any furniture or many other
household items. She came to House of Hope and
the Clothes Closet program was able to help --
and showed that the program is about more than
just clothes. House of Hope gave her two twin
beds for the boys as well as one for herself.
There were also some sets of blue sheets someone
had donated that were perfect for the boys'
beds. The family was given a set of dishes and
plastic cups. The best item of all was a chair
for the boys' bedroom where their mom could sit
and read to them at night. |
|
"Mickie" was 20 and temporarily living at a
domestic violence shelter with her 15-month-old
child. She has hopes for going to college and
becoming a nurse, but her first step along the
path is getting her GED. She needed help paying
the fee to take the test, and House of Hope
agreed to pay the $70 fee. |
|
"Alan" is a disabled
veteran, discharged from the Marines in 2004
after two surgeries on his knees. He is
attending school on the GI Bill, studying
aviation mechanics, a vocation he did during his
time in the military. He is the father of a
15-year-old, and he lives with his fiancee, who
also has a teenager. His fiancee works at a
resort as a massage therapist, but has had no
work during June. "Alan" was also the victim of
bank fraud, losing $600. He will be finishing
school and looking for work soon, and House of
Hope was able to help with $280 toward their
rent to help them in the meantime. |
|
Read
thank you
notes from clients
and donors
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