The Impact of Your Donations
Neighbors feel the benefit of your donations in many ways.
2024
Stories of
hope
Cindy is 44 years old, works at a local school, and has two children, ages 10 and 13. Due to some legal issues she had resulting in lost work/wages, she fell behind on her mortgage. Cindy resolved the legal issues, which reinstated her good name and standing, but left her on the precipice of foreclosure due to the energy and time she’d invested to clear her name. With a daunting mortgage bill of $8500, Cindy managed to scrape up $4000 for the outstanding balance, and reached out to numerous resources to try to find the balance. Thanks to a collaboration between Deep Well and the St. Vincent DePaul Society, the two agencies combined to zero out the rest of the mortgage bill—keeping Cindy and her family safe in their home where they continue to build equity in this important asset.
Michael is 53 and was struggling mightily with his finances—so much so that he had resorted to living in his car to save up money to secure housing. Michael was a hard worker and was starting a new job with a painting company, but during his employment gap, he took out a high-interest, unsecured loan so he could cover his monthly car loan payment and renew his car insurance. But even with a good job and decent pay, the one-time loan he’d signed on for was charging 40% interest every week, so instead of bailing him out of a tight spot, it was really creating an ongoing vise on his budget. Deep Well helped him pay off that predatory loan to zero out that obligation, and now Michael’s saved enough money up to get into a stable housing situation, allowing him to use his car for transportation only, not as his home.
Sam is 61, his wife is 63. Both work full-time and were getting along just fine in their rental apartment – until there was a fire in his housing complex. They lost all of their belongings and had no renter’s insurance to help replace things. American Red Cross stepped in to help with immediate needs, but finding a new place to live that was affordable for the couple and relatively close to their work took longer than the Red Cross’ services could cover, so Sam turned to Deep Well to help with the housing gap. After another month, the couple did finally secure new housing, but they couldn’t close the deal…they had the deposit, but not the first month’s rent. After confirming their employment and monthly income/expenses were numbers that made sense for long term stability, then Deep Well covered the first month rent to help the family get set up in their new home.
Beth was renting a mobile home in a large mobile home park at a rate of $1300/month. She had a good job and was stable with her bills, even though that rental rate was at the very top end of what she could afford and she lived in fear of unexpected expenses bubbling up and wrecking her fragile budget. Then the owner of the mobile home park began offering tenants the option to “rent to own” their units, allowing them to build equity in the asset. Best of all, if the tenant could come up with the sizable down payment to convert their lease from plain rent to rent-to-own, then the payment amount would drop to $650/month, a much better housing cost fit for her budget. Beth came up with part of the downpayment needed, while Deep Well covered the balance. So now Beth has a more flexible budget and is building equity in her home asset.
Deep Well helps Island residents get to their doctor appointments by either providing a gas card if they have a car, or covering the cost of a taxi ride if that’s the only option. Ethan is one of the folks who Deep Well regularly gets to his doctor. Ethan is only 68 years old, but he is almost completely blind and has a host of other medical challenges. Almost monthly Deep Well dispatches a taxi to pick Ethan up, get him to his doctor appointments, all confirmed by Deep Well in advance, and then when the appointment is over, the taxi returns Ethan to his home. Ethan is grateful for the transportation help since his family members all work full-time and can’t miss work to drive him multiple times a month.
Deep Well offers a shower facility as well as a self-serve laundry option for people living on Hilton Head who are unsheltered. Usually it is a single person in this situation—working but living in their car until they can find housing. But recently a mom and her adult, disabled son found themselves in this situation. Mom worked full-time at a local grocery store and was saving money to try to get her family into housing. After six long months of two people living in their car, an apartment finally came available that they could afford. Throughout this ordeal, Deep Well helped the family with showers, laundry, food—and with the first month’s rent to secure safe housing. Deep Well’s furniture room also provided basic necessities to furnish the apartment. The discipline and resiliency of this mother and son was amazing, and Deep Well was honored to help them start a new, better chapter in their life on Hilton Head Island.