Do you have any idea what it’s like to ask for help? Do you have any idea what it takes for a person to have to ask family, friends and strangers for help with the basic things in life? Maybe that’s easy for others but for me it is not because my basic needs I should be able to do that myself. You spend your whole life taking care of yourself been independent. Then, without a warning everything is taken away from you. it’s not our ego is the point that you now in a position where you cannot take care yourself when you’ve done all the right things but in a deadly disease came in and took everything away.
I asked this company for help with my electric bill. I had to choose between paying my electric bill or buy food. I was told we can help you if you had a shut off notice. Maybe it’s me, but why would I wait until I get a shut off notice before I ask for help. There is no guarantee that you will still have money in the budget to help me so then where does that put me without any lights?
They even have a program that would give you your deposit and first month rent, but the problem is you have to be homeless. I’ve tried to make this makes sense to me and I can’t. if you are going to give me my first months and the deposit then where am I going to get the money each month to pay my rent. And if I need a deposit to get my lights and water on you would pay the deposit too. But if I ask you for assistance to help me pay my rent not the whole amount, but some just so I will be able to pay my electric bill, water, and buy some food. I’m not even going to ask you to pay each month just maybe twice or three times out of the year. So I don’t have to worry about what am I going to eat or decide if I’m going to have lights or water for that month. I don’t know about anybody else but if your lights or water gets turned off you now have to pay the whole past due balance plus a deposit I don’t want to be in that position.
Struggling to live it’s not something we decided to do but is something that we were forced to have to deal with and no matter how hard we try we still can’t get ahead.
So you rather give somebody $3,000 then help somebody with maybe $300. I just don’t understand that logic. It’s your program and your rules. We have to follow the rules, that’s how it’s set up and it’s OK.
Being unemployed and unable to pay your basic bills puts pressure and stress on anybody that is in your life and that’s not fair to them. When one person is doing all the giving and you have nothing to contribute is hard and very stressful. It’s not that they don’t understand your position, but if they’re doing all the giving all the time would you think they would get tired.
If you have nothing to bring to the table why would you think somebody will stay there when you have nothing to offer