As a team, parents achieve stability for their children
Help with rent provides home in time for holiday
Family stability was everything to Jeannine and Allen Santiago.
Both had come from broken homes: Allen’s childhood in New York was one without a father while Jeannine had been bounced through Florida’s foster care system after her dad died when she was 6.
They bonded right away after meeting in Miami. They studied together for their GEDs and certifications as medical assistants. Building a family through their twenties, they were determined to give their children – and each other – the support and foundation neither of them had.
Allen threw himself into the role of provider, working jobs in security while Jeannine – who was wary of trusting strangers because of her past – cared for the kids full time in their home.
Wanting a clean break from South Florida, about eight years ago the couple moved with their two toddlers to the Orlando area.
By 2019 they had a third child and were renting a three-bedroom house for $1,200 a month.
The budget was tight, but life was good and their lives stable, something they’d always wanted. They took road trips to Florida beaches and the mountains of Georgia.
After the pandemic hit and lockdowns ensued, Allen lost his job in se
“I didn’t want my kids in that position. I didn’t want them to feel how I felt when I was a child.”
Jeannine Santiago
curity for a time. But the family stayed atop their bills through the help of unemployment, federal pandemic relief and odd jobs that Allen picked up as the economy re-opened.
Then early last year, the bottom fell out. Their landlord decided not to renew their lease, opting to rehab the house instead.
Stuck in a statewide housing crisis,
the couple scrambled for a place to live.
Allen’s uncle in North Port let them stay in a room of his house.
The five of them crowded into one bedroom, where Jeannine and Allen carved out corners of space for air mattresses where the two oldest could do their homework.
No matter what they were going through, Jeannine told them, the kids’ only concern should be their studies.
“Everything else, that’s on Mommy and Daddy,” she said, trying to soothe their worries.
Co-parenting, Jeannine and Allen helped the kids with their schoolwork and played games in the room. Hiding their own stress, they carved out fun time for the kids at area parks – where Allen would meet them on his lunch breaks. As a team, he and Jeannine were splitting the work to find an apartment as fast as they could.
“I was busting my butt to get us out of there,” said Allen, who took on warehouse and detailing jobs, pained at not being able to provide a home for his family.
Meanwhile, Jeannine maintained stacks of paperwork on housing prospects and called dozens of rentals looking for something they could afford. But either wait lists were closed or income and deposit requirements were out of reach.
The instability was Jeannine’s worst nightmare. “I didn’t want my kids in that position,” she said. “I didn’t want them to feel how I felt when I was a child.”
She would talk aloud to her father, calling on him for strength.
“Dad, I need you to show me a path.”
On the drive to the park, the family often passed a new complex being built in North Port. Jeannine prayed each time, trying to manifest a solution to their plight.
“Lord, please let us have a home again,” she’d ask. When she pulled into its new leasing office, their names were placed on a waiting list of applicants. They were number 350 on the list.
“Babe, we have to be prepared,” Allen told Jeannine, worried about raising her hopes.
When Hurricane Ian hit, their situation got tougher. They rode out the storm in the uncle’s house, at one point Allen and their two teens holding a window in place. Afterward, driving through standing water, their good car got flooded, with the insurance refusing to cover damage.
That left them with their beater, a 2003 Nissan. Then last December, Jeannine got a call from the new apartment complex. Their name had come up. They needed to come in and fill out some forms. Jeannine couldn’t wait to call Allen.
“I got goose-bumps listening to her,” Allen recalled. Filling out the application, Allen knew they had enough for the deposit. But given their car troubles and other bills, the family would have trouble getting in the door.
“We were living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. In all her phone calls for solutions, Jeannine had already been in touch with Family Promise of South Sarasota County. Now that the couple had found a place, Family Promise could help.
The nonprofit tapped Season of Sharing on their behalf to cover the first month’s rent, almost $1,300. With its own funds, Family Promise covered another month to be sure the family was firmly on its feet.
In January, they moved into their three-bedroom apartment.
This past year, the couple has switched roles. Now Allen does the caregiving for their youngest while Jeannine works in retail – a job that is a closer commute in their Nissan beater.
With daycare costs too high and Jeannine still leery of strangers taking care of their kids, Allen will fill that job until the youngest is ready for school next year.
The budget is still tight, but this holiday season they have a place of their own – already decorating it with a silver tree in the corner of the living room.
To both parents, the past two years brought them closer as a family, they say as their oldest two kids, now teens, come through the door from school – one showing off her art project to Allen as her brother brings his trombone to his room. Both kids continue to make straight As, as they did through the entire housing ordeal.
The parents are grateful to everyone who helped them provide their family with stability again.
For Jeannine, her heart melts hearing their youngest daughter give her verdict of their new living situation.
“Every day she says, ‘I love our home.’”
This story comes from a partnership between the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Saundra Amrhein covers the Season of Sharing campaign, along with issues surrounding housing, utilities, child care and transportation in the area. She can be reached at samrhein@gannett.com.