Having a roof over your head is absolutely essential, but tragically, there are hundreds of thousands of people and families who don’t have a place to call home. According to official numbers from the White House, it’s actually estimated that there are over 552,000 people without a home in the United States alone. To put that into perspective, that’s 17 people for every 10,000 inhabitants. Almost 200,000 of those are completely unsheltered. Those people are literally living on the streets, and don’t even have a car or a homeless shelter to go to.

A single mother of four recently thought that she’d had to go through her worst nightmare. She was forced to move into her car, along with her children.

Kenia Madrigal lives in Houston, and things weren’t exactly going well for her and her four young children. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, she was laid off from her job, and couldn’t pay the rent for her apartment anymore. In these very strange and troubling times, Kenia also had a lot of difficulties finding another job in order to pay for all the necessities and the rent.

Eventually, the woman and her children were evicted from the apartment, and all they had left was a rather small SUV.

They got evicted around the time the pandemic hit the country and spent more than two months in their car in the summer period. Living conditions were anything but ideal – especially during warmer days when the temperature inside the car just became too unbearable.

“I take the car seats out. I put the seats down, and these two go all the way back,” the brave single mom of four told ABC13. “So, me and my oldest are there while the youngest are in the back.”

Living in a car also prevented Kenia’s older children from ‘attending’ school in a COVID-19 world.

After all, most classes were moved to online solutions. Living in a car, attending and participating in classes was practically impossible, and there was nothing they could do about it. Sleeping inside a car is anything but comfortable too, especially if you have to share it with four other people.

Of course, mom knew that she couldn’t keep doing this forever. Luckily, her luck started to turn around after a couple of months, as she found a new job.

But it wasn’t enough.

It paid $11.50 an hour, and she couldn’t get a place to live for that amount of money, nor could she find means to care for her children. Little did she know that there was quite a shocking surprise in store for her.

When one of her co-workers, Chelsea Monroe, heard about Kenia’s story, she was immensely moved. She started a GoFundMe crowdfunding page for her and her family, to raise enough money for a month of rent.

“Hi everyone! I’m making this fundraiser for my coworker Kenia. Kenia is a hardworking, optimistic, brave mother of 4. In the beginning of the COVID lockdown, she was laid off, denied unemployment and TANF, and unable to find work for months! During this time, her children’s father became more and more distant. By the time she found work, her four children (aged 1-11yo) were evicted from their home, and their father was nowhere to be found. They’re currently residing in her car. Kenia and her children Michael(11), Benjamin(8), Sarah(3), and Sophia(1) are in great need of help, due to the country’s failed reaction to the COVID pandemic. These funds will go towards a safe home, for Kenia and her children. They will also fund her children’s education for this new virtual school year,” the crowdfunding page reads.

The target for the crowdfunding action was only $800, but that target amount was absolutely shattered by kind strangers and friends.

At the time of writing, over $74,000 has been raised for Kenia and her family!

For Kenia, this came as a complete surprise. She was absolutely shocked when she saw the willingness of hundreds of strangers who were willing to chip in and help out.

“I’m still in shock. I still don’t believe it,” she said. “I can’t believe there’s that many people willing to help me, of all people. I don’t believe I’m somebody for them to want to help.”

Thanks to this amazing generosity, these children will have a roof over their heads again, and can finally participate in their online classes. And it all started because of this one co-worker who wanted to help out.

Be sure to check out their story in the video below!

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Source: ABC13 Houston (YouTube), ABC, GoFundMe, OUP, US News