‘I Feel Helpless’ — Working Single Mom Raising 9 Kids Seeks Help While Facing Eviction
She has survived abuse but says she is still fighting.
GoFundMe / YouTube In Nashville, Tennessee, a mother of nine is about to lose her home after being dealt an eviction notice from her landlord.
Her story highlights issues faced by low-income households across the US who struggle to keep their families afloat without crucial support.
The mother of nine works full-time and is facing eviction from her home.
Autumn Davis feels she has “failed [her] kids.”
Davis has a lot on her shoulders. She has to work and take care of nine children, ensuring they have necessities like food, shelter, clothes, and education.
She told News Channel 5, “Because I’ve got nine children, two that I took in just out of the love of my heart, and it’s like I can’t get any help from anywhere.”
Now, she worries that they’ll all soon be homeless.
“I feel stressed out. I feel angry. I feel helpless. I feel like that there’s no one around to help, and you know, it’s scary.”
Even though, Metro’s HOPE program was able to help her pay her $900 rent, it was only a one-time deal — she’s still struggling to keep up with rent.
"I know COVID is coming down a little bit, but there are still people struggling out there like me," she says.
Davis says she is a domestic violence survivor who took in two children after fleeing abuse.
According to her GoFundMe, Davis and her children faced homeless before while fleeing from her abusive ex-husband.
At a domestic violence shelter, Davis met a woman who had her two children taken away and had no one to fight for them in court.
To avoid losing the children to the foster system, Davis took them in. However, she says she has been unable to receive aid because they are not her biological children.
Davis is already part of an affordable housing scheme.
Urban Housing Solutions, Davis’s landlord, is an affordable housing provider. But even with these aids, the cost of supporting her children has proved to be too much for Davis.
“It behooves people to do what they need to do to get their rent paid, when we’re collecting much less rent per unit than a standard market rate landlord,” Urban Housing Solutions' general counsel Alan Mazer said.
“We need people to pay their rent to keep our doors open,” he continued.”
The COVID-19 pandemic had residents “drowning” in rent debt after the eviction moratorium ended.
Mazer shares that it’s unenjoyable for them to evict people, so they try to help as best as possible.
“If she got assistance and then fell behind again, and then she gets assistance again, what’s to keep her from falling behind yet again?” he said.
Now, Davis is looking for anyone to help.
She shared that she’s searched for public housing locations, but she discovered that they all, unfortunately, have extensive waiting lists. She doesn’t know what to do and explains, “We can’t just be on the streets.”
Davis hopes that she can hopefully find a new home for herself and her family by sharing her story.
If anyone would like to donate, Davis launched a Go Fund Me to help support her housing emergency.
Ashley Darkwa-Anto is a writer at YourTango based in New Jersey who covers News & Entertainment.