LIMA — About five months ago, Patricia’s life was uprooted when she was forced to move from her home because of mold issues. The single mother of four managed to find a mold-free property, but her problems haven’t stopped.
For a year and a half, Patricia said she and her family rented a home with a leaky roof that the landlord refused to fix.
“Every time it rained, there was about six to eight inches of water sitting in the basement,” Patricia said. “The walls would soak a lot of it up, and that’s when the mold and mildew started to show.”
After several complaints to the landlord, Patricia said the man decided to patch the leak instead of fixing the entire roof, which did not solve the problem.
“He’d patch it up here and there, but as soon as we got a good rain, it would start leaking again and the mold would start showing up,” she said.
When her children started to develop asthma problems as a result of the mold, Patricia said that was the last straw.
“We couldn’t take it anymore, so I saved up several paychecks and we were finally able to get out of there,” she said.
“We had to leave every kind of fabric furniture there because it had soaked up all the mold. I’ve spent the last three months catching up with laundry because we had to wash every piece of clothing. Everything smelled like mildew.”
Though she and her family are out of the moldy house, Patricia said she’s still living paycheck to paycheck, and the house she rents now is also in need of repairs. Abandoned for nine years, the house is without a furnace, and the hot water tank the home was equipped with needed to be replaced.
“That set us behind quite a bit,” she said.
To heat her home, Patricia purchased two baseboard heaters. However, it will cost her around $300 to get them wired. That might not seem like much to some, but as a single mother trying to raise four children, money is tight.
“I’m working currently, but I don’t have a lot of hours … and it’s only for the holiday season,” she said. “I need something more stable to support my kids.”
With years of experience in retail, Patricia hopes she can find a full-time position in the field. She said she continues to send in applications, but so far nothing has materialized.
“All I can do each day is keep pushing forward and not give up,” she said.
With barely enough money to survive, Patricia knows providing her children with Christmas presents is nearly impossible.
“Every mom wants to be able to do something for their kids on Christmas,” she said. “I don’t want my kids to go without. They’re all I’ve got.”
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