Bradenton mom returns to road and work after help from Season of Sharing

Maria “Cami” Lopez felt the steering wheel shake violently in her hands.

The 26-year-old Bradenton mother of two could barely make a quick 10-minute run to the store this fall without her car threatening to give out. She didn’t dare use it anymore to transport the kids to daycare and school. Nor could she risk taking it onto the highway to commute to her new job as a bookkeeper, 45-minutes one way.

Weighing on her mind as she gripped the wheel was the knowledge that there was much more at stake than a simple car repair.

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She could not afford to fix the Toyota Corolla, but without transportation she’d lose her job. And without her job, she’d lose subsidized child care. And without child care, she couldn’t work. And without work – how could she pay rent? She and the kids would be homeless.

“It’s like a domino effect,” said Lopez, who goes by “Cami,” short for her middle name, Camila. “It became a total nightmare for me."

Lopez is among tens of thousands of local residents who are working but unable to make ends meet, according to United Way Suncoast, which reports that half a million households in a local five-county area are struggling just to get by.

While families with and without children are in financial straits, single parents with children and Black and Hispanic households are more likely to be Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed – or ALICE, the United Way report stated.

For many families, a single setback can push them over a financial cliff.

For Lopez, over the past few months, it felt instead like the cliff was falling on her.

The household budget was already tight for Lopez, who was working as an office manager for an irrigation company. Her estranged husband, from whom she’s separated, also contributed financially to help with their children – Isabella, 10, and Santhiago, then about to turn 3.

Born prematurely, the kids long had suffered from weakened immune systems and frequent health problems – Isabella with asthma and allergies; Santhiago with chronic ear infections.

“They are sick every other week,” Lopez said. “When he’s sick,” she added, looking with a smile at Santhiago, who was busy playing nearby with his toys, “I’m sick.”

Lopez, like many independently employed and gig workers, did not have benefits or family sick leave, though her office manager job was flexible, allowing her to work from home to be with the kids when they fell ill.

Then in August, both children needed surgery to remove their tonsils. Isabella had an allergic reaction to the anesthesia and was hospitalized. Then the children’s father contracted COVID-19, passing it to Santhiago.

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Ultimately, Lopez had to stay home with the kids for an entire month and lost her job.

While laid up with the virus, the kids’ dad wasn’t paid for missed work, either. At that point, no money was coming in.

“He couldn’t pay his bills. I couldn’t pay my bills,” Lopez said.

Heading into autumn, Lopez fell further behind on rent and utilities. She was terrified of being evicted from their three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment for which she paid $875 a month. She feared never being able to find something that size for that amount amidst a record-breaking increase in rents and a chronic shortage of affordable housing.

Step Up Suncoast, an area nonprofit assisting her through its program Healthy Families Manatee, gave her information on how to apply through the county for pandemic-related federal rent assistance.

After gathering reams of supporting documents from the hospital and doctors’ offices, the assistance came through two months later, covering rent for August, September and October.

Lopez also started a new job in October – as a bookkeeper doing payroll for a business based in Myakka City, more than 30 miles away. The job was a godsend. It could help her save up for November’s rent and overdue bills for electricity – which was about to be turned off. Much of the work she could do from home, though part of her responsibilities required her to go to the office.

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“My car was about to explode basically,” she said. “I was terrified driving that car.”

But then Step Up Suncoast told her about Season of Sharing.

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After she applied and qualified, the check quickly came through, covering almost $1,400 in car repairs.

A separate program through Step Up paid off the electric bills, keeping the lights on.

Lopez was overcome with relief and gratitude.

“I just cried,” she said.

Rick DiGiorgio, housing counseling manager at Step Up Suncoast, who helped Lopez apply for Season of Sharing, said her problems are sadly all too common.

"She is one of thousands out there living paycheck to paycheck, and if they sneeze, it's a disaster," DiGiorgio said. "Being a young mother, she's got a lot on her plate, and she's trying to take care of those kids as best as she can."

Step Up Suncoast also helps her with individual and marriage counseling, Lopez said. Lopez believes that stress from tight finances not only impacted her marriage through the years but her health as well – leading to her developing ulcers by her mid-20s.

For Lopez, family members are close by to assist with the kids. But with the children’s frequent illnesses, a traditional 9-5 office job is difficult, given how often she has to be home with them when they get sick.

Recently, she has turned her life-long love of art into a small business enterprise – custom painting shoes and designing T-shirts and costumes and jewelry to sell. She dreams of building up her own business between her bookkeeping job, something she can run from home from a small art room she’s carved out in their apartment.

“I don’t’ know how else to make it,” she said – her ebullient demeanor suddenly crumbling as she broke down and wept, overwhelmed.

Trekking from one doctor’s visit to the next, she is racked by guilt that she’s not a good parent, that she can’t provide for her kids or keep them healthy.

“I’m just trying to stay afloat,” she said. “My goal at the end of the day is make sure my kids stay safe.”

Though she’s not completely caught up, the federal rent assistance and Season of Sharing aid helped her rise from underneath this summer and fall’s avalanche of problems, to start envisioning her next steps.

She plans to keep looking for scholarships for additional classes on bookkeeping and accounting, she said, in the hopes of advancing her education and career.

And in the meantime, there was something to look forward to on a weekend in early November: Santhiago’s third birthday party. Lopez made him a costume – a cape and T-shirt emblazoned with the name Santhicoyo on it – combining his name with that of his beloved cartoon character, Pocoyo.

On the big day, the weather was perfect – sunny with clear blue skies and crisp, fall temperatures. Watching her children laugh and Santhiago proudly show off his cape, she could relax, basking in her children’s happiness, forgetting, if only for a couple of hours, worries about finances.

She felt grateful and blessed for family and friends, their generous gifts of toys and clothes, for Santhiago’s health that day – his first birthday not spent in the hospital – and for the kindness of caseworkers and strangers, who helped lift a weight off her back.

How to help

Season of Sharing was created 21 years ago as a partnership between the Herald-Tribune and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to get emergency funds to individuals and families on the brink of homelessness in Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte and DeSoto counties. There are no administrative fees and no red tape – every dollar donated goes to families in need to help with rental assistance, utility bills, child care and other expenses.

Donations to Season of Sharing may be made online at cfsarasota.org/donors/support-season-of-sharing, or by sending a check (payable to the Community Foundation of Sarasota County) to Attn. Season of Sharing, 2635 Fruitville Road, Sarasota, FL 34237. Contact the foundation at 941-955-3000 for more information or to request a credit card form. All donations are tax-deductible.

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.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Car repair returns Bradenton mom to work thanks to Season of Sharing