Coming Together For Family On The Verge Of Homelessness

The last week we've been frantically working with Tacco Cullens, single mother of 11. As of Saturday June 30th Tacco and her children were forced to leave the substandard home they had rented buy a scam artist that did not in fact own the home. Why was the home substandard? Because the fake landlord refused to fix the house.





Since the 30th there have been two tasks that the family and others have been trying to accomplish. While we all have been organizing a patchwork of suitable places for the family to stay, we've also been trying to find a long term solution to their housing.

One two separate occasions in the last week the family was literally on the verge of having nowhere to sleep. If it weren't for "Able" Mable Thomas and Atlanta Travelers Aid Tacco and her family could have already ended up on the street.

Progress has been made. In the last week more and more people are coming out of the woodwork to offer help. We've had several leads on a house, though none have panned out yet.

Today we launched a weekly lunch and learn at Pittsburgh Resurrection designed to provide space for the family to learn alternative career paths, budgeting, how to organize their community, how to identify root causes of the problems in their lives, and urban gardening. The lunch and learns are also an opportunity to enjoy a good cooked meal, and for the younger children to engage in fun educational activities.

After today's lunch and learn we took the whole family to Antioch Baptist Church for a meeting with Rainbow PUSH southeastern president Joe Beasley. Mr. Beasley not only took the time to meet with each of the children and make sure they went home with boxes of food, we also spent about an hour putting pressure on the Atlanta Housing Authority to help this family through their crisis.

What are we looking for and how can you help?

The family is looking for a 4-6 bedroom house that's cheap and available for rent. They would of course would need the owner to understand and be cool with the fact that this family is very big. They would prefer something that isn't to far from the Pittsburgh(as in South ATL) . We are also open to helping them buy a cheap abandoned home and help them fix it up, but that would need to happen really soon and time is running out. Atlanta Travelers Aid is currently paying for the family to have a few efficiency rooms downtown, but their last day there is July 18th, so that's the deadline we're working with.

 There will be a benefit dinner this Saturday in the Pittsburgh Community at 6:30pm. The cost is $5 to $20 for a three course meal, people are encouraged to pay what you can. Below is a link to the event.
Facebook event

You can also give directly and safely here:
Donate To Tacco Cullins




Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Single Mother of 11, Ripped Off, Now Faces Homelessness

Occupy Our Homes ATL, the Pittsburgh Community, and American Friends Service Committee call on our city to find a solution that keeps Tacco Cullin’s loving family together. We believe that Atlanta and its residents can make this happen.

Tacco Collins reached out last week in a desperate situation. She was living in a substandard three-bedroom house with no electricity and had just run out of food to feed her family.

Tacco signed a rental agreement with her landlord in February of 2011. Before she moved in the landlord made a promise to fix the flooring, replace the water heater, fix the shower, and paint the interior, none of which ever happened.

 In July of 2011 her electrical box exploded and the landlord refused to fix it, leaving her with no power. She decided to withhold rent until it was fixed, and instead of fixing it the landlord tried to evict her. After Tacco took her landlord to court she discovered that he didn’t actually own the house at all, it belonged to an investor in White Plains, New York.

What we have now is a short period of time to find permanent housing for the family or they face homelessness, and there are serious challenges.

Atlanta is the only major city in the US with no public housing, we have a moratorium on section 8 vouchers, and it seems that no shelter can take a family of Tacco’s size. Atlanta’s only solution seems to be to funnel the family into yet another underfunded inadequate system. To add insult to injury there are literally hundreds of large boarded up homes in Tacco’s community that have been sitting unused for years.

One thing that’s clear to anyone who spends time with this family is that they love and need each other. The unique bond between the children and their mother is tender and truly moving. This family needs to remain together. What they lack in capital, they certainly more than make up in devotion to each other.

We are asking all that can to contribute to helping Tacco and her 11 children a stable place to live.

Link to Wepay:

https://www.wepay.com/donations/keep-tacco-collins-single-mother-of-11-from-becoming-homeless

At AFSC we believe that housing is a human right. The United States is the richest country in the world, we spent billions to fund a global war on terror,yet we don't have the safely net to catch struggling families in crisis in our own backyard. Tacco is a full time mother who can't take on work, we call on the community to step up and help us find a sustainable solution.

Link to CBS 46 Coverage:
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/18933547/woman-said-she-and-her-children-are-homeless

Tim Franzen

American Friends Service Committee