Remember Miz L, the pro bono client that Mr. BIL does work for, that almost lost her house back in December or January?
She just called here about an hour ago. It seems a portion of her house has caved in. I don’t know the total extent, but it sounded like the ceiling tumbled down on one-half of her house. She said water is “pouring everywhere.” Not good. I told her to have her grandson see if he can safely find the source of the water and get it turned off so it doesn’t do more damage. I also recommended she think about staying somewhere else until a resolution can be found. She said no to that, stubborn old woman.
So I’ve spent the past hour on the phone with various charity groups in Charlotte trying to find someone that can go out to her house this weekend just to ensure that the place is safe for her to stay there. I’d hate for her to go to bed tonight only to have the OTHER half of her house fall on her while she lay in her bed.
It’s just really tragic. She called here about a month ago just to check in and things had been good and bad. Bad because one of her sons and one of her grandsons had passed away within two months of each other (March and May), but good because she was proud that she had been able to make her mortgage payments on time since we did the refinancing back at the beginning of the year. And now her house is falling down around her ears.
I called Mr. BIL who said to do what I can and then go home and not worry about it. But how can you not worry about it? I called Habitat for Huminaty who has a repair branch, but Miz L lives just outside their jurisdiction. But that person gave me the number for another organization that sends out volunteers to help low income people. I called that group, and the woman said “we can’t do anything until Monday.” I said, “Uh, her house may not be safe – she really needs someone to go look at it NOW.” She sighed and asked me to fax over some form that outlined the problem and said she’d see what she could do to get someone over there “during the weekend”, which could be Sunday or even not at all (she was quick to tell me “we close at four”)! Not having much hope in that, I called another number that Habitat gave me, who then sent me to United Way. I called United Way who referred me to a partner group of theirs that does small odd jobs and repairs on low income homes. I called there and the woman said that IS what they do, but they have no money and haven’t had money in about two months. Needless to say I’m going to speaking with my church this weekend about raising grant money for THAT charity group (they are called Friendship Helping Ministries if you want to raise money for the group as well). Habitat also gave me the number for a guy who works for Mecklenburg County but even he admitted, “the guy probably won’t help you.”
Lastly, I called Miz L’s social worker to see if she can be of any help. Miz L already said her new case worker is mean and not much help, but I figured it was worth a shot. So I left a message on that woman’s voicemail and hope to hear from her if not today then definitely next week. Miz L NEEDS to go to subsidized housing. She can’t live in that house anymore.
So I’ve done all that I can do short of driving over there myself to take a look at it and be Miss Fixit. Which I won’t do because it’s in about the worst section of town that it could possibly be in.