Stories and Feedback

1. A single mother with five young children had rented her house for seven years and had been able to support her family through child support payments, by working full time and by subleasing a basement apartment in her home. However, she fell into financial crisis last year when her pay was reduced at the same time that her child support payments stopped (most likely because her ex-husband had lost his job.) She fell behind in her rent and her Washington Gas service was cut off. MUSST was able to help her restore that gas service.

2. Another client needed help to restore her natural gas service which had been turned off for two months. The client had been unemployed since 2008. Her two daughters who lived with her had also lost their jobs although one managed to obtain part time work. None of them were able to obtain unemployment benefits. A twenty year old son also had a part time job. Thus a family of four was living off the earnings of two part time jobs which provided a total income of $530/month. MUSST provided the funds to have their gas service restored.

3. A nurse and single mother was injured in an automobile accident. She was disabled by the accident and unable to return to work before her disability insurance ran out. Consequently she fell behind in her rent and her landlord began eviction proceedings. When she approached us for help, we provided a grant to prevent the eviction.

4. Another client lost her job last March and her unemployment insurance was less than her rent payment. Not surprisingly she fell behind on her rent and her landlord started eviction procedures. MUSST helped her pay her rent arrears while her two sisters agreed to pay the other bills until the client found work.

5. An employee of Howard University, who was also working on an advanced degree there, was a single mother with two adult sons, both of whom were full-time university students. Her difficulties began when her oldest, a full time law student, was stricken with a cat-related disease which caused him to go blind. The family does not know where the disease came from since they do not have cats. The son has been in full treatment for over a year in Philadelphia. The mother has had to pay out of pocket expenses related to his treatment and miss work in order to visit him. As a result of the economic downturn the staff at Howard was put on furlough days cutting her income further. Teaming up with the Department of Health and Human Services, Interfaith Works, and Bethesda Cares MUSST helped the family pay off a large, overdue Washington Gas bill.

6. A Captain in the US Army Nurse Corps had to leave the service because of medical problems. She sought back pay from the Army and in the meantime sent out over fifty applications none of which produced a position. With Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda Cares, and MUSST contributed to an assistance package to pay off her back rent and prevent eviction.

These cases are only six out of the many clients to whom we provided financial assistance to.