For months Jennyce Gonzalez built an escape plan.
After 20 years in a turbulent marriage, this spring she was finally mapping her way out.
When the family’s North Port lease ended in late July, she would embark on her own with the couple’s two teenage kids, leaving her husband for good.
Given her strong salary as an insurance underwriter, she’d save up and easily find a smaller, safe and comfortable space to rent, she believed.
What she wanted more than anything was stability for her younger children and a calm place where her oldest two from a prior relationship could visit her – something her middle son stopped doing of late.
But then May turned her plans upside down.
A fight between her husband and their 16-year-old son brought the cops to their door.
Then after her husband moved and Jennyce began divorce proceedings, she was left with the kids and the house – plus all of its bills.
For the next two months, the entire $2,300 monthly rent would fall on her shoulders alone.
So would the utilities, which were soaring this summer, along with grocery costs. How was she supposed to afford this while saving for another?
And the clock was ticking.
“Oh, my God,” she thought.
“What am I going to do?”
Always independent
Jennyce prided herself on never asking for public help.
In her youth, leaving home at age 18, she’d held down two jobs and worked her way up through the insurance industry in a career field that she loved.
After an earlier relationship fell apart, she raised her oldest sons, now 24 and 28, as a single mom.
“I’ve always been independent,” she said.
She taught her sons to be the same.
“Kids, follow your passion,” Jennyce told the older boys.
Once married, she conveyed the same message to the younger two.
She’d cheered her daughter, now 19, through Advanced Placement classes and an International Baccalaureate program.
They took painting classes together while Jennyce cooked with her youngest son.
On special occasions, Jennyce brought all four kids to Disney World.
But by now the circumstances were stark.
The costs of living had soared, even in North Port, where the family had moved after getting priced out of Sarasota.
And now Jennyce was holding down one home while looking for another.
This summer as the end of her lease neared, Jennyce frantically scoured complexes for available units – spending “$100 here, $200 there” on application fees.
Her daughter, an incoming freshman at the University of Central Florida with a new job at Universal Studios, decided to move early on her own to Orlando.
That left Jennyce in search of a two-bedroom apartment for herself and the youngest, her 16-year-old son.
It also had to be large enough for her home office.
Finally she found one coming open and at the top of her budget: $1,609 a month.
All the leasing office required was first month’s rent and an equal amount in a security deposit.
But when Jennyce tallied what she need to avoid eviction at the current home, she realized she couldn’t swing it all. Her heart sank.
“I was taking in all the probabilities,” she said.
That included sleeping in her car and working out of a local library while her son stayed with friends.
Jennyce, 47, said that “never in a million years” did she think she’d wind up in a spot like this.
But she had to admit that she needed assistance.
It was time for Jennyce to swallow her pride.
“I’m either going to get help or I’m going to be homeless,” she thought.
A common struggle
Jennyce’s situation this summer is all too common.
Rental hikes have steadied, but rents remain high for many local working families and seniors as grocery costs have soared – leaving thousands of families just one emergency away from losing the roofs over their heads.
A recent report by the Florida Housing Coalition that was commissioned by four area foundations found that 15,000 new affordable housing units must be built in Sarasota County during the next decade to meet current and future needs – for everyone from nurses and teachers to first responders and hospitality workers.
Meanwhile, this year’s ALICE study released by United Way Suncoast showed that the survival budget for a family of four in the county has shot to $104,424.
Single moms are among those families that are hurting the most. ALICE studies have also shown that in Sarasota and Manatee counties, about two-thirds of all households headed by single moms are either ALICE (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed) or under the federal poverty line.
That was true for only 39% of households headed by single dads.
To Lymari Rodriguez, client services specialist with North Port Social Services, a couple’s separation often prompts a household financial crisis in this climate of soaring costs of housing and groceries – especially for single moms. That is true even for someone like Jennyce who makes a strong salary.
“There is pricing and availability, and nowadays to get into an apartment complex you have to be making three times the rent, which is very very hard unless you’re living with someone,” Rodriguez said.
“If you are on your own, there is no way.”
Finally able to exhale
When Jennyce heard about Season of Sharing from a friend, she contacted Rodriguez’s office right away.
After a case manager told Jennyce that Season of Sharing would cover her new first month’s rent, she was able to swing the security deposit on her own. She was also able to wrap up her final payments at the old place and avoid eviction or possible damage to her credit.
“From that moment on, I could breathe,” Jennyce said.
This summer, she and her youngest son moved in.
She decorated the spacious apartment in warm tones. On the walls, she hung the paintings done with her daughter along with Disney costumes and jigsaw puzzles.
Following the prospect of sleeping in her car and leaving her youngest with friends, the place seems almost too good to be true. “I can’t believe it,” Jennyce said.
The kitchen has plenty of counter space for her son as he preps his favorite guacamole dishes.
Not only is there a nook for her home office, but there is plenty of room for her older kids to sleep on sofas or inflatable mattresses when they come for short stays.
Recently Jennyce’s daughter and 24-year-old son did just that. This middle son is also at UCF – studying tourism and hospitality. It was his first visit in years, given Jennyce’s past marital problems.
When the two siblings walked through the door, they told her: “Wow, mom, this is so nice!”
This is perhaps Jennyce’s greatest joy and relief.
The help Jennyce has received has allowed her to create a stable home base for all of her kids.
She has been able to maintain a stable place for her youngest child to live in – and a welcoming place for her older kids to visit and spend treasured family time with Jennyce.
“That’s what matters,” she said.
How to help
Season of Sharing, a program administered by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, assists individuals and families in an emergency with rent, mortgage, transportation, utility and child care expenses in Sarasota, Manatee, DeSoto and Charlotte counties.
You can donate to Season of Sharing by going to cfsarasota.org or calling 941-556-2399.
You can also mail a check to Season of Sharing, Community Foundation of Sarasota County, 2635 Fruitville Road, Sarasota, FL 34237.
This story comes from a partnership between the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Saundra Amrhein covers the Season of Sharing campaign, along with issues surrounding housing, utilities, child care and transportation in the area. She can be reached at samrhein@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: A devoted North Port mom badly needed housing help. Season of Sharing answered her call.
Reporting by Saundra Amrhein, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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