First Attempt at Helping Others

Last week I did something I've never done before. On my Facebook timeline I saw a post from someone who listed a link to their fundraising site. I clicked the link and read a short paragraph written by someone in my town, who I don't know, pleading for help to raise money so that he and his girlfriend could stay in their apartment. Apparently, they had a roommate who suddenly decided to move out, taking the security deposit with him. These two people in question also have two babies in their care. I felt an instant connection with them. Or an overwhelming desire to right this wrong. At the time only one person had donated $35.00. At last check, that number still remains the same.

I suddenly found myself looking up the email addresses for government officials who are in charge of the town I live in. I proceeded to send an email to the governor, senator and two representatives explaining the situation and providing the link to the fundraising site. From the governor, I got back an auto response thanking me for contacting him, and nothing else. I never heard from the town representatives at all. The only person that followed through was Senator Walter Felag. (I also called him at his home and left a detailed voice mail.) He called me the next day asking me to clarify the situation. He implied that he felt he could help. He did explain to me that he wasn't really the person who handles this sort of thing but would pass my number along to someone in the constituents office and see if there was anything they could do. The next day, I heard from a man from the constituents office and he said the town and state doesn't have any funding left to help people like this. That they could try to reach out to the housing authorities and see what they say. I told him that these people already did that and the waiting lists for housing help were closed never mind being years and years long. I gave him the phone number of the couple in question and he said he would reach out to them and explain that there was not much they could do, other than provide them with shelter information. And that ended that. I find it disappointing that there wasn't a solution to this problem. The people who are given positions in office, are limited in their ability to help. So what does that mean? All these people in this state and in every other state, who are at risk or high risk of losing their home have no where to turn for help? No where????? So they end up on the street or their mother's couch indefinitely. This is not okay and I really want to do something to change this reality. People WANT to help themselves, sometimes they just need a hand up to buy them that little extra bit of time to get their lives in order.