Naomi,

We settled!! The family gets to stay! We cannot thank you enough for everything. You will be hearing from them directly, but Ms. T. said this morning that the children kept saying that they would love to meet the wonderful people that saved their apartment, “they’re like Santa Claus” they said. So, thank you thank you thank you thank you.

E.

The writer is a public defender we have worked with from time to time and the family she writes about was but a few days away from losing their public housing.  After years of struggle, Ms. T. has managed to get all of her children back in her care and the family is once again united, hoping never to be separated again.  But, as is often the case, due to the bureaucratic missteps that somehow seem to happen to people who can least handle them, that was exactly what was about to happen.

It is only because of a very generous donor who likes to help keep people in their homes and not in the street or in a shelter, that we were able to pay the public housing arrears and keep this family together.

I guess if Santa could be Jewish we might qualify, but….

Postscript

The next day we received the following update from the attorney who handled this case:

Your intervention saved this family of eight from homelessness and despair, from which it would be impossible to recover. You also saved the taxpayers over a minimum of $8,000 per month by avoiding emergency shelter for the large Taveras family (shelter costs approx $1000 per month, per person), AND you preserved precious shelter placement for other families who may have been turned away or kicked out due to lack of space.