“When you don’t know where to go or what to do, it’s very stressful,” Jose said about looking for a new home.
Jose had been living with his wife and mother in a double-wide mobile home. He had owned the home for the past four years, but like many mobile home owners, did not own the land where the home sat.
The lot that Jose and his family lived on was being sold and they were told they would have to find a new place to live. Although he had completely renovated it to look like new, his mobile home was too old to be relocated.
Jose spent months looking for a new place to live, and amid all the stress, his wife suffered paralysis of half her face, resulting in 30 days in the hospital. Soon after Jose had an injury at work and needed surgery. Jose has been working in construction for the past 32 years but did not have enough saved up to make a deposit on a new home and also pay the medical bills that were piling up.
Not knowing where else to turn, Jose called his local Chamber of Commerce to ask for help and was given the phone numbers for a couple of local non-profits.
With little hope left after several calls with no response, Jose reached out to MSC. The receptionist at MSC was immediately able to connect Jose with MSC’s housing team and Jose was able to meet with a case manager the next week.
The case manager helped Jose apply for financial assistance to pay the deposit for a new rental home. Jose says that his case manager “did an amazing job and was really quick. He helped right in time.”
MSC provides one-time rent assistance and limited resources for temporary emergencies to families living in South King County. Families like Jose’s who can regularly pay their monthly bills but have a verifiable emergency that prevents them from meeting their own needs may qualify for such funds.
Jose, his wife, and his mother were able to move into their new home and have begun to get back to their old routines without all the stress.
“We miss our house, it is not the same, but it is what we have. We have a roof over our heads and that is what counts,” Jose says about their new place.
Eventually, Jose would like to save up enough to make a down payment on a new home, but for now, he is happy that he and his family are safe with a place to call home.
