I told my kids that the house is too small for us. The truth was we was getting evicted. If you were to get rich, what's the first thing you would buy? A house and a doggy. The first thing. Oh, a doggy. So, you would be homeless with a dog? Yeah, I'll come over to your house. Oh, good, I get my own room. I'm like, oh, yay. When we first moved here, what did we sleep on? An air mattress. Mama Lee, I was thankful for the bed because it's better than having no bed. I mean, at least we have a bed, but if it blows... You'd be thankful for anything you have. Family? Everything. I miss Grandpa. Me too, I miss Grandpa too. A mother's job is never done. We give our last even though it is our last. I was raising my daughters. Everything was going stable, and the pandemic hit. I get the phone call from my lung doctor. She said, you have to shield. I couldn't work. I can't be near nobody because if I catch the virus, I'll die. She'll have to file for unemployment. I've never missed a rent payment before, but she was going to evict me at Christmas time. I never show on my face that I'm worried about anything. I don't give my kids adult things. I have to put on this facade that everything is fine. You shield your children, but the truth was we was getting evicted. How am I going to survive? How am I going to feed them? How am I going to pay my bills? That's what a parent's supposed to do. I told them, I got you. Don't worry, I got you. My dad, hmm, don't mess with him. He was a strong man. He showed no defeat, that's for sure. Anything I needed, I can depend on my dad. He would say, I love you, baby. You're strong, you'll be fine. That's how you were raised. Dad, he was misdiagnosed several times. He got several opinions. They gave him the same diagnosis until he went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that's where they found the cancer. He said, I love you, baby. He wouldn't want me crying. He said, you're too strong for that. I miss him. Before he passed away, all the kids were around the bed. He said, I want one of you in the medical field. It did plant a seed for me. So, I'm home. I have to shield. Then I start seeing commercials on the TV for surgical technology, and I'm like, I can do this. That's the medical field. I took my entrance test, and she said she's never seen anyone score that high before. I got accepted into the program. I went to school, but I'm still down on money, worrying. There's always the option of going to a shelter, but my dad, he taught me. Where there's a will, there's a way, and I'm going to find it. The internet is a beautiful thing. And that's when I met Kate. Okay, the Rent and Mortgage Assistance Program? Payment Assistance Program? You've got that earlier. You can edit it in, because I can't remember it.
I'm Kate Haseley. I'm a RAMP specialist. My dad, very active in politics. I know one of his goals, which he achieved, was computerizing the town hall. Up until he did his thing, everything was basically pen and ink. It was cumbersome, delay in getting help. Paper, paper, paper. They were moving into an age where everything was digitized. He thought it was time to modernize all of that, so that's what he did. Helped a lot of people. He had hope. Hope that the world can change. Hope that maybe people do want to change. He was diagnosed with cancer nine months after he won election, and he died the following December. He didn't get to live to really see the Internet become popular and common, but I know he would have greatly enjoyed it. I mean, I can certainly relate to people that are in situations where they're going to shut their lights off any minute. I worked for a subprime mortgage company right up until the mortgage industry exploded in 2008. I had reached a point where I decided I needed to sell my house, and for me, that was like the trigger on a depression cycle. And my sister said, you need to come stay with us. I had a lot of restless nights. I don't know what made me turn on the news that late, but I did. We're on your side with information that could help you if you're behind on your rent, your mortgage, or utility bills. The RAMP program has helped more than 18,000 households renters affected by the pandemic pay for their rent and utilities. They opened up a physical site on Freedom Drive. It was either the last day or the second to last day. The last day. I ran over there. To apply to RAMP, you go online. Your application is sent to us. The money is approved through the federal government, but it's funneled to us through the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The county, I know they didn't expect the size of the crowds that we had. Thousands of applicants who are in one of the most desperate times of their life. They're at the risk of losing their home and in many cases, not having anywhere else to go. There's no way we would have been able to get everything we needed done if it had to be done on hard paperwork. Our system, it's not perfect, but it works. Kirsten was somebody, she was in a bad situation. At that point when we were face to face, I'd get an idea of what it would take to make this person whole. Once we have that, we actually develop a rent award, an electrical award, a gas award, water. Submit the file. Once it's approved, we turn around and send out three documents. One is a grant agreement. One is a household self-certification of income. The last document is called a landlord-tenant agreement. I send an email out. They need to be signed by everybody before I can do anything about making any payments for them. December of 2021, 3,000 applications still waiting to be addressed. I was worried people would get lost in the system. The court hearing the next day, it wasn't no tree, it wasn't any gifts. I broke down. I haven't done that since my dad passed away. Homelessness. I don't think no child should have to experience that. I felt less than a mother. Like, I failed my children. For Kirsten, her priority was priority one with an eviction. She needed help with a very finite problem. Because we were able to digitize, the system was there. Kept thousands of people from falling through the cracks. On the internet, there's a lot of crap that gets promoted and shoved in everyone's faces. However... Even a cynic needs a little bit of feel-goodness, I guess. The internet is a beautiful thing.
My eviction. I don't think about that anymore. In my class, there was 20 people, but it's only five of us that are graduating. And I am one of them. I got a job offer the third week on my rotation. I just started my rotation. The boxes that I had packed for my eviction are now going to my new home. I am set. My kids are set. She took a crappy situation and made it into a good situation. That's pretty cool. Maybe it gives me hope. How's that? I'll give you that. New house, new career. New beginning. I did it, Dad. Yes. I did it. The internet is a beautiful thing. She said never look at the ground. She said never look down. Never look down. Only look forward. Because you never know what's in front of you. Never look down. Never look down. She said never look down.