More Than Repairs: Hope Restored at Home

To everyone who has been involved in the recent improvements to our home, I cannot fully express my gratitude in a single letter for all that has been done for my children and me.

For the past six years, our family has been navigating an extraordinary number of challenges—through the pandemic, my battle with cancer, and significant losses of income and financial stability. Six years of uncertainty takes its toll on a family’s enthusiasm, perseverance, and resilience. There have been many days when I simply did not know where to begin. There have also been days when I found hope, only to become overwhelmed when another challenge appeared.

Housing Assistance has given my children and me something I had begun to fear we might not have again: a renewed sense of hope and security in our home. The repairs and improvements you have helped provide are things I simply could not have afforded on my own while working multiple jobs to support my family. We have been unable to make the repairs needed, while unable to afford to live anywhere else. The last thing we wanted to do was give up our home having given up so much already.

For a period of time, all three of us were experiencing persistent respiratory symptoms, including congestion and runny noses. Knowing that the condition of our home could be contributing to our health was incredibly difficult. There is a particular kind of heartbreak that comes from knowing your children’s living environment needs improvement and feeling unable to provide those improvements yourself. I carried a deep sense of inadequacy and worry, despite doing everything I could to keep our family moving forward.

Over the past several months, however, we have had the privilege of meeting some truly wonderful people who have been, in every sense, the wind beneath our wings.

The improvements to our home have changed our daily lives in ways that are difficult to put into words. A weather barrier beneath our historic home, built in the 1750s, has helped protect its foundation. A new heating and cooling system provides better humidity control and air filtration. And a new roof means that we can finally live without the constant fear of leaks and the damage they bring.

These may be physical improvements to a house, but what you have given us goes far beyond that. You have given us security. You have given us hope. Perhaps most importantly, you have reminded us that we are part of a community that cares.

There is something profoundly meaningful about reaching out for help and having someone you did not know take your hand. At a time when our family had been carrying so much, the generosity, kindness, and work of the people involved in helping us has restored something in all three of us that goes beyond the walls of our home. It has restored our faith in people and in the idea that, even during the most difficult seasons of our lives, we do not have to carry everything alone.

I want each of you to know how deeply grateful I am — not only for what you have done, but for the way you have done it. Your generosity has allowed my children and me to breathe a little easier, sleep a little more peacefully, and look toward the future with renewed hope.

You have filled our hearts with a sense of security, hope, and love that we will carry with us. I know that the three of us will continue to pay that kindness forward, following the example you have set for us.

From the very bottom of my heart, thank you for seeing our family, for believing that our home was worth investing in, and for giving us the gift of a safer, healthier, more secure place to call home.

With deepest gratitude,

Jessica