soon to be homeless

Please He, Massachus

I'm a 37 yr. old man with a family that includes me,my wife and 4yr. old daughter.I also have 2 daughters from my previous marriage that I pay support for and take every weekend.2010 was a year long downhill spiral for us.First I lost my job of 6 years due to a company shutdown.I was told of the closing the day it happened.We were already struggling to make ends meet and my wife had just started back to school at night for nursing.After going on unemployment my wife had to stop school to pick up more hours at work.We had to take our daughter out of daycare which meant she had to stay home with me which put me at a big disadvantage for looking for work.However,I can't tell you how many times I've taken her to put in applications and even on some interviews. Believe me,it does'nt help your chances of getting a job showing up with your 4yr. old to do an interview.I finally did get another job only to be laid off 3 weeks after I started.This meant I was'nt there long enough to apply for unemployment.This was over about a 7 month span in 2010 and over that time we fell further and further behind.Luckily I was able to work off a good bit of rent by doing work for our landlord at night after my wife was home.He had a lot of properties and I'm a professional painter/handyman by trade.Then in August my landlord came to us and said he was selling the house and we had about 45 days to move.He also refused to help us financially in anyway to make the move and even kept our deposit stating,"I filed bankruptcy,sue me". We found a program that helped us secure another apt. and we moved within 30 days.After we moved in we found out the apt. was infested with mice,ants and other insects.The new place was a nightmare.We found out the young man living under us was physically abusing his girlfriend almost every night as we had to listen to this every night and my daughter witnessed several acts of abuse in the hall and driveway.Continuous phone calls to the property manager and police resulted in nothing being done.These two would break and smash things,yell,swear and slam doors that shook my whole house and broke things on my walls.After about our 5th call to police and the manager we woke up to 4 flats and all our windows broke on our car.Then another couple moved in across the hall from these 2 and this man was physically beating his girlfriend and doing drug deals in front of our house.3 days after they moved in our apt. was broken into and we had several things stolen,including every new toys and clothes we had been buying little by little for my daughters Christmas.It was'nt much,but it was all we had for her.Alot more went on there everyday and I knew we had to move but we had no money.I ended up posting an ad on craigslist and asking people for help and we found someone to let us move in with no deposit or anything.We were forced to move a week before Christmas.Christmas morning we had 3 presents for our daughter,all from toys for tots.Now we're in a new apt. with no way to pay the next months rent or much of anything else.My wife's hours were cut almost in half due to downsizing and cutbacks,I am unable to find work and I don't know what else to do.we don't even have a phone for potential employers to call.I use a free voice mailbox and then have to go to a payphone to return calls if I can find change.We've had to sell anything we had of value over the past 4 or 5 months to semi-survive. We have a car that someone donated to us and I was just told it needs about $2,000 worth of work.Neither my wife nor I have any family still living.We do receive foodstamps and are told that's all we're eligible for here in Mass.We also go to foodbanks every week.I actually tried panhandling 3 times and once I was arrested,another time I was beaten up and the last time I made $12.00 in 10 hours.I don't know what to do.It's gotten so bad the last two months me and my wife have discussed possible temporary(hopefully temporary),foster care for my daughter.I can't imagine losing my daughter for any period because we don't have any money for a place to live.It's tearing my heart out to have to write this.We are very good people.We've always worked hard,have never drank or used drugs and done our best to be good,honest people.We just need a little help.Anything anyone can give will help.Be it a dollar or two or even 50 cents.PLEASE HELP my family in anyway you can.May GOD bless and keep you.Thank you for any and all help.