Eduardo* is a student at Seattle World School, and he lives in South Seattle with his dad. Sadly, on April 8, his dad – the sole provider – was admitted to ICU at Harborview Medical Center for COVID-19. His father has been in ICU since then. Alone and devastated, Eduardo hopes his father will recover from the novel coronavirus soon and come home.
Eduardo had to take on yard work to pay the bills while attending virtual school with zero income coming in and little groceries stocked. That side job was not enough to begin covering rent. So, Eduardo reached out to our Systems Navigator team for emergency assistance through our Emergency Response Fund.
We spoke with Eduardo’s landlord and helped Eduardo make May rent. The landlord promised to ask the owner of the building about forgiving any amount of Eduardo’s debt. In the meantime, our staff is committed to providing Eduardo the assistance he needs by advocating for lower rent payments and ways to keep the utilities on.
As Eduardo holds out hope for his father’s recovery, he plans to enroll in Seattle City Light’s Emergency Low-Income Assistance program and attend an upcoming event, hosted by Seattle Public Schools, that will help get him set up with free Internet. While classes end next week, Eduardo had not been able to participate fully in his online classes because he did not have Internet access. He used his phone to complete school assignments.
Please consider donating to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund to help student-age youth like Eduardo through the pandemic. Your support means Eduardo can afford to stay in his home while his dad remains hospitalized.
