Shelby Lopez, 26, a stay-at-home mother of two working part-time as a brand ambassador, is trying to raise her two small children in Reno, but now after an unexpected setback for her fiancé Jacob at his work, she’s reaching out on GoFundMe to save her family from being evicted from their two bedroom place at the Vizcaya Hilltop Apartments.
After utilities and pet fees, they’ve been paying about $1,800 a month. When they moved there several years ago, she says their rent started out at $1580, not a huge increase, but now too high for any wiggle room.
Shelby says her fiancé, who is 24, works for a local logistics company. A recent problem with that job cost him hundreds of dollars in pay they were expecting. “They deliver like Pelotons and stuff like that,” she explained. “And, his boss just has a contract with XPO Logistics. And so they have big box truck they drive around and his boss owns that. And the engine blew or something on his truck. And so, they were out of work. It was for four days total and it was about like $600.”
In December, the family was only able to pay about 900 dollars rather than their full rent. “And they said it would be fine just like give 'em what we can like, try and get it paid or whatever,” she said of the apartment managers initially. But she says they then filed paperwork, setting in motion a possible eviction. “We have a 30-day notice to pay and then we have been emailed and told through our manager that if we don't get the payment paid by the 10th in full that we will be getting the eviction, and then that will be like a 24-hour lockout. I’ve never dealt with anywhere, that's so like, doesn't care. I get that it's a corporate setting, but they're just … they don't care.”
Rent is usually paid by the family on the fourth of every month, and when it’s not paid in full they also get an added late fee of 90 dollars. Shelby says they now owe $2,009.
In her GoFundMe post she wrote: “We somehow always seem to figure our stuff out but with Jacob's current job wages he's just not making enough money to cover all our bills and it's finally catching up with us…. We're already doing everything we can, giving plasma, selling our TVs, and anything we have of value that we can replace, but it's still just not cutting it with having enough gas money for work and food expenses. I'm extremely embarrassed and reluctant to post this because I just feel so ashamed that we're in this position in the first place but God has put it on my heart to ask for help so here I am to ask.”
“You know, I was desperate and so that's why I made it, but it's actually gotten a good amount of traffic. I had a few friends that donated and shared it and my one friend, in Hawaii, she has like 20,000 followers. And so I think that really helped. And so just the kindness of strangers is what is getting us through.” The GoFundMe has been stuck now at $658 of the $1,000 goal for several days.
Previously in Motels, Thinking of Leaving Reno Eventually
Shelby says it’s been a difficult road already from her family. She says they really wanted to build a life in Reno where her fiancé is from but that eventually it might be too difficult. Shelby is from Rockland, Califonia, where she says it’s “pretty pricey” as well. “As we moved to Reno, once we got here, it seems like the market just kinda blew up,” she said.
They initially stayed in motels, including the Reno Royal Motor Lodge, and in a Siegel Suites.
“We’re trying to start better habits this year and start a savings account with our tax return and get going with that,” she said of hopes for 2022. “We have a car that we only owe about a thousand dollars to a friend of ours that we have a payment plan with and it's worth a good amount of money. It's like a Toyota Land Cruiser. And so just trying to pay that off as quick as we can, and hopefully we'll be able to sell that car. And with the way Reno is, the market, I think we'll be heading out of state, but that's a whole other fun situation in itself I think, figuring that out.”
Shelby doesn’t have family that can help with the kids, and with preschools so expensive and always shutting down with the pandemic that hasn’t been an option to find more work hours for herself. She says she’s tried getting rental assistance through COVID funding, but was denied.
“Low cost housing is the biggest issue I think at the end of the day,” she said of people like herself. “We’re definitely trying to get ahead in life and not let this be our situation every month.”