Dear Bill & Melinda,
my name is Tura V. Morton.
I am writiing this letter in hopes that there is some way myself & some
other members of my family, could get help with taking care of our debts,
and finding a way to get into or onto a property that has 2 houses with
at least 3/bedrooms each . Even a duplex would be nic
this is the first time that I have asked anyone to help me out,
I am 66 yr.'s old , and since Dec.2007, everything has been going
downhill fast! My sister, Delvon Bandy has had several operations
over the past few years , and she will be 75 in sept. She also has
a handicapped daughter, now 46 yr.'s old. she is getting very hard to
control.
One & a half years ago, I was put in a position where I had to
turn over my housing voucher & have my name put on the house
where 2 of my grandchildren were. there was actually 5 children,
ranging from 3 - 13 yr.'s old . I took care of the 2 youngest, &
my oldest grandaughter. ( 3, 5, & 13 ). Their father was put out
for doing drugs, and just 3 month's before that their mother had
joined the navy reserve, so to me I had no choice than 2 take
care of my grandchildren. I told their mother that I could not afford
to spend more than $200 a month, because I had been on housing
for a long time, & my rent & utilities never went over $160 a month.
Their mother sent money to help the first part of Jan. 2008. She
never sent any more! It cost over $300 a mo. just for gas alone,
taking them to daycare, school, & counsling. Their father had absolutely
no food in the house for them, with the exception of a few dried
out loaves of bread from the food bank! My daughter, & her oldest
daughter, had to come help me take care of them . We all 3 spent
all our money, on the children 2 feed & clothe them. I ended up very
ill because of black mold in her home, some caused from them taking
the knob of the boys bedroom door, & not letting them come out to
go to the bathroom! So they used the rug, closet, ect., because they
were not allowed out while their mom & dad were doing their things,
whatever that was!
My daughter & her oldest daughter found a place on june 4th,
2008. when the childrens mom came home in july 2008, I was left
homeless & very sick. She had promised to help me get back into
my own place. when it came time to help she informed my daughter
that her family came first! My daughter said" I thought mom was part
of your family!"
Since July of 2008, I have been going between my daughters & my
sisters home,trying to help where I can.
On Aug.26,2008 my oldest son passed away at 46yr.s old. he had
been staying with my sister from the time I went to help my grand-
children.,--So most of my time has been spent with my daughter.
We have all been extremely ill, so much so that we hired a lawyer
who said he would be glad to help us, because we had a very good
case.
The fridge we had ,did not work from the time we moved in. We
kept telling the landlord. He would have my daughter do certain things
to try & fix it. It never worked! then water started running down the
walls,& black mold started showing up in all the walls, along with a
crack across our celing that is now leaking very bad! - - So, we spoke
to the landlord again, & he just laughed, & said :"YOU HAVE'NT DONE
ANYTHING LEGAL, SO I DON'T CARE!'' So we sent a letter to him, the
the Health dept.,the B.B.B.,as well as the Attorney General. We had first
had a professional Toxic person come check the house. He said their was
black mold as well as possible asbestos & lead paint & the Co2 was very high. He said it needed to ,
be taken care of by a proffesional, because it would kill our pets &
possibility us. So far 3 have been to the emergency Hospital. They all
see the doctor, again, today, & along with my other health problems
I now have asthma.
His response , was to slash the back passenger tire on the 2 cars
we were using! Tried to break in while my daughter & I was away from
home & her 18 yr. old was in the shower!
he sent us an illegal eviction notice in retaliation from the letter we sent
to him, instead of fixing things, he told us he didn't want anyone living there
that wanted things done legally!
We paid our money out on the 2 slashed tires, and bought a freezer for
our food, although we can not keep fresh food or milk f more than 2
days at a time.
And thats just a fraction of whats going on at my daughters house!
Every bit of money i've had the last three months has had to go to
the lawer ,& gas to come up to my sisters & help her where I can.
She has had both her eyes operated on for cataracts, & had to have
retinal sugery on her left eye, whitch is not healing properly.
The drive to her Dr., that done the eye sugery, is approx. 1hr.30min.
--to 2hr.'s away. Her Dr.'s want her to move into Bellingham
as soon as she can. We have had to call the ambulance a number
of times for her these last few years. - -Also they are about to
forclose on her home. She is unable to keep on paying for the
house or her taxes this year . We have tried to find some kind
of Government grants to help, but everything seems to be a
runaround! My daughter has tried to get some kind of settlement
for all our illness, but the lawyer said the landlord won't go for
it. We did have someone to put the 2 months rent in escrow for us
but when he talked to our lawyer, he was told that he would be wasting
his money ! Therfore our friend paid him $150 to negotiate for us.
I'm not a happy camper! The Judge told us if we could get the money in
escrow, we could have it taken care of the next week., He then looked
at our landlord ,and said: ( "SOMEONE IS LYING TO ME & I DON'T LIKE IT!
I WOULD ADVISE YOU TO SETTLE OUT OF COURT!")
I feel our lawyer was paid by someone other than us,
I also know that this is a very long letter, & that there's probably
no one that can help,but if anyone can , we would be forever
Grateful!
SINCERILY TURA V. MORTON
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE AND EFFORT YOU HAVE TAKEN TO
READ THIS. I know there are those much worse off than our family,
but it just doesn't seem that it can get any worse.
Thank you again for all those you have helped, and will help, even if it
might not be for our family.
There is NO ONE that can ever say that you haven't given
to others much more than most ! There are very few people
like you and your wife that are willing to help spend your own money
to help others. You're both appreciated for all you have done.
