“This family needs a miracle.”
By Lynda Hiller — Working America member, Pennsylvania
My name is Lynda Hiller and I joined Working America when an organizer came to my home in Coplay, Pennsylvania. My family has been struggling because of the economy for two years now and when the canvasser came to my door, I felt like someone finally cared. I wanted to share my story.
Only a couple months ago, I started to think that things were changing in America. We have a president who cares about the little people, about the working class. We finally passed healthcare reform, and we were getting close to holding Wall St. accountable for gambling with our economy.
But then, for the second time this year, the Senate went on vacation without voting to extend unemployment benefits. The economy has not improved, and they left those struggling with unemployment with nowhere to turn. That same week, we got a letter from the bank that our house was being foreclosed on.
We originally took a mortgage out with one bank, but at some point, it was sold to a third party. A few years later, we took out a small second mortgage which was then sold in pieces to another financial institution. So now we are dealing with multiple banks as we struggle to keep our house.
We are not frivolous people. We made payments on time as best as we could until I was diagnosed with cancer and started undergoing chemotherapy treatments. During this time, it took all my strength just to survive. I couldn’t write a check, I couldn’t remember the payment schedule. All I could concentrate on was beating the cancer. While I was undergoing treatments, my husband lost his job. Our bills kept piling up, and soon they became unmanageable.
My husband has been actively looking for work for two years now. He has applied to everything he can find, at some places multiple times, but nothing has turned up. We have been surviving on the unemployment benefits.
We have tried to follow the rules and we have taken every step that you can take. We applied for a Home Affordable Modification Program but were told that we didn’t meet the criteria. What are the criteria? It’s still a big secret. We have written letters of hardship. We have talked to every person imaginable at the banks or local programs, but have not seen any action. I have given up my pride and have begged every organization in our time in need. We want to be able to pay. We want to work something out with the bank, but have only found dead ends.
In this terrible economy, it all comes back to Wall Street hurting Main Street. This family needs a miracle. They have hurt us in every aspect.
We have been in this house for five years, if we lose it I don’t know where we will turn. We have had to start over before, and I know that we can again. But no one should have to do that. We are a working class family. We don’t go on vacations, we try not to spend a lot on groceries, but without our house, we won’t have anything. Our elected officials need to start looking out for Main St. and extend unemployment benefits until our economy truly begins to recover.
Tags: mortgage crisis, unemployment
I hear you…my family needs one too. I lost my job back in February of this year and in this rural, job-depressed area (Southeast MO) it’s impossible to find any work at all. I have a 15-yr-old son who I receive NO child support on (his father was sent to prison for 10 yrs some time after we divorced) and who has no one else but me to depend on. Thanks to the screwed-up economy and a selfish, money-grubbing Congress who has no appreciation for how real people live, I have exhausted my unemployment benefits and despite my best efforts I have no way to meet our rent payment next month. My son is terrified that we will have no place to live and even though we reassure each other constantly, neither one of us really believes in it. I’ve swallowed my pride and applied for Welfare, but the monthly benefit in this state is so low it won’t cover our rent. Who is going to help us? I have zero faith in the government to do so. These jerks on Capitol Hill need to be made to live like we do for a month; maybe then they’d grow some common sense and a little compassion.
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I’ve been unemployed since September 2009.
I’m a 36-year-old child support-PAYING, female, seasonal construction truck driver forced to live in my parents’ basement for $400 a month just to make ends meet and avoid starvation. My regular unemployment benefits ran out, but I’m currently eligible for Tier 1 extension benefits, which are significantly lower than regular benefits.
It’s JUNE. I’m supposed to be WORKING. When the bank comes and takes away my car, how will I pick up my kids? How will I get to work when (or IF) it finally materializes? Family can help out only so much, because they’re barely squeaking by themselves. Unemployment isn’t enough, and I don’t qualify for anything else.
I’m desperate and I don’t know what to do. And then we have Legislators like Ms. Nancy Pelosi spending more than $18,000 a MONTH for OFFICE SPACE!
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Let the House Ways & Means Committee become aware of your struggles! On June 10th they held a meeting regarding the long-term unemployed. Send them a letter by June 24th to let them know where you stand as an unemployed American. Go to:
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/singlepages.aspx?NewsID=10951 to submit your letter.
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I have been out of work since December 2008. I have worked since I was 17. I paid for college myself, didn’t ask for assistance from my mother as she worked extra hard to try and afford Catholic school so I’d get the best education she could afford and have opportunities. I have at this point exhausted my savings. I live with my sister and was contributing to the household cost, she owns her own home. Unfortunately, she lost her job and now works part-time only. She’s behind in the mortgage and I’m able to contribute very little. I feel guilty because I can’t help her and she’s been so understanding about my financial situation. She is now in the process of losing her home, she has two children. I’ve applied for jobs everywhere, I worked in Human Resources and prior to that in Event Planning. I have never seen an economy like this and like so many others have had to rely on these benefits. It’s discouraging to deal with people who still work as they can’t understand how anyone could be without a job for such a long period of time. I can’t even understand it and I, like so many others are living with this reality. I’ve applied for everything and anything and have had no luck. I’ve applied in my state, SC, and others, NC, GA, NY and have had no luck. I exhausted my savings trying to keep myself afloat and it’s just so frustrating to have elected officials not care that we have lost our benefits. It’s not like this money is affording us a grandiose lifestyle, you still have to juggle just to keep up with your responsibilities. I’ve written letters to my Senators, but they consistently voted against this bill and now it’s failed.
What I’m frustrated by is how you can need 60 votes when you have the clear majority. Seriously, 57-41 and because of the rule this bill was defeated! I think the President needs to get more involved in this situation. I know he has other things on his plate but millions have been and will continue to be affected by this travesty.
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Keep reporting your unemployed status. This will keep the official unemployment more accurately reflecting reality.
Keep calling your US Senators & Representatives.
Make the above comments on articles and in forums. Tell anyone who claims they are paying for you to be unemployed that they are WRONG. Unemployment tax is paid by employers, not employees. They can check their pay stubs or better yet, do a little research and check for themselves:
“The Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), with state unemployment systems, provides for payments of unemployment compensation to workers who have lost their jobs. Most employers pay both a Federal and a state unemployment tax. A list of state unemployment tax agencies, including addresses and phone numbers, is available in Publication 926, Household Employer’s Tax Guide. Only the employer pays FUTA tax; it is not deducted from the employee’s wages. For more information, refer to the Instructions for Form 940 (PDF). ”
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=104985,00.html
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I’m replying to my own story(This Family Needs A Miracle)We still are in harms way!I paid a lawyer to help us,and it seems that he has joined the other side.Every cent I had in the bank,which should have gone for bills)went to him.I was only trying to buy time for my family to either find another place to live,or an investor to buy our home,so that we could rent or lease it back.I’m running out of time,and thanks to Congress,I don’t even have my husband’s unemployment to find some place else.I have never seen times this bad.I have tried to get food stamps,and medical insurance for my husband.I just had another surgery,July 8th,and I’m trying as hard as I can being out of it for a couple of days.I’m still trying hard every day,and praying that something good will happen to this family,but failing badly.I keeping hoping and praying that someone out there will help a family in desperate need.I hope that we can make it thru this bad,bad time.
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Millions of Americans hear you, share your pain, and pray for you. We are unemployed too and have similar stories to tell. God knows how hard it is to read yet another article or turn on Fox or CNN (Republican) News to see yet another pompous reporter implying that the long-term unemployed are just no good, lazy people. Of course WE know they speak without compassion or education on the topic but their listeners just want to believe that the news is… well, news that is actually based in at least some level of reality. Even now as the extensions pass the world doesn’t know that Florida is left behind. All other states who qualify for Extended Benefits took care of their legislation to “mirror the federal law” some time ago but Florida is Republican majority in the House and they are refusing to change the end date of June 5th to Nov 30th and preventing millions from being able to receive the 100% federally funded Extended Benefit Program even though Florida has the 6th highest UE rate in the nation and has is one of only 14 states with a significant increase to their unemployment rate over the past year. There was one chance to change the date when the Governor called a 4-day Special Session to discuss oil drilling in the Gulf. The Governor and the AFL-CIO urged them to change the date then but the Republican House Leader said no, Republicans refused to even discuss oil drilling in the Gulf and adjourned the meeting almost as soon as it started. This cost taxpayers $50K and then they all had the rest of the day and 3 more paid days to do “other things” which is what the Republican Leader said were ending the meeting to do. Now they claim they won’t meet again until March 2011 so, the people of Florida really got little relief from the passage of the federal extensions. It’s so sad, so very, very sad for the people. Republicans seem to be not even hiding a high level of arrogance, complete lack of compassion, and even openly engaging in absolutely anti-social and pathological behaviors that are really very scary.
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