Patty and Ray have a young family with three daughters under 6 years old. It takes both of them working full-time to support their family. The week before Thanksgiving both of them were out of work due to having Covid. Patty then had strep throat and was out another week. While Patty was able to return to work the Monday after Thanksgiving; unfortunately, Ray lost his job due to the absence. This caused them to fall behind and come up short for rent. Patty called Good Neighbors and made an appointment to come in on her day off. We were able to help her with a portion of her rent and provided community resources to help get the family back on track including food resources and employment opportunities for Ray. Patty was very appreciative and hopeful now that she had found a way to help ease the financial burden that the loss of one income had made on the household.

Paul has been homeless for almost a year now. While he has always been able to maintain employment, he was living in motels or friend’s couches. Recently he found a place but did not have enough saved for a deposit for his utilities and security deposit to move in. He had been working overtime trying to make some more money and was running out of time to hold the apartment he had found. A coworker suggested he call Good Neighbors for help. When Paul came in for an interview with a coach and told his story, the coach was able to help him with our SURE deposit program that he decided to put towards his utilities. During the interview Paul also mentioned that he needs help with furniture and other household items that he did not have. Good Neighbors was able to help connect Paul with community agencies that were able to help supply him with some of these items including a gift card to Karm that he used to buy some dishes. Paul is very happy now that he is able to be in a permanent home and is actively working on becoming more stable.

Rebecca and her son live in a trailer that belonged to her late husband. Both Rebecca and her son are on disability for medical problems that does not allow them to have extras and is just enough to pay basic living expenses. Last month they received a notice from the new landowner that their lot rent was going up the from $400 to $500. Even though this would make things tight for them, Rebecca felt that they would be able to manage the bills between both their incomes. However, when they had an unexpected car repair, things got to be too much and they found themselves unable to pay their utility bill. The power had been shut off for two days when she called Good Neighbors. We were able to pay the utility bill and get them turned back on that same day. Rebecca was so very appreciative for the assistance we had provided. The coach was able to talk over some suggestion with Rebecca for her to make some changes in her budgeting that would help them be better prepared to another emergency in the future.