GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Shondreka Lott is a mother of four children. Currently, they're staying at a hotel in Grand Rapids. She faced eviction from her low-income housing in May of 2024.
“I didn’t understand the paperwork; it was paperwork after paperwork,” Shondreka said. “I would have never messed up my kids' low-income housing if I understood what was going on,” she continued.
Shondreka now faces a new problem. The hotel she is staying in is giving her until Feb. 25 to leave. She has to leave because there are too many people staying in the room. Additionally, the school bus her children take can't pull in. Her children are 18, 15, 10, and 3 years old. One of her children has severe autism.
“I’m willing to do anything. If I could just jump through a hoop that works, a hoop that wasn’t a dead end, a hoop that would accept me, a hoop that would say, 'This shouldn’t have happened'...” Shondreka said.
She's tried multiple different housing programs, with no luck yet. No one from her family can take her and her children in, either.
“I’m in panic mode now. Because I know Jesus is going to fix it. But I have no real way of knowing. I have nowhere to go,” Shondreka said.
FOX 17 reached out to the Salvation Army to talk about resources.
“A lot of participants when they’re coming in and they’re facing a housing crisis, it’s like they’re playing ping-pong,” Community Services Director for the Salvation Army Samantha Westhouse said.
The Salvation Army explained that resources are incredibly limited, especially since COVID resources have run out.
“There’s just not a lot of resources. So when people call and screen, and even if they’re falling into eligibility, there’s nothing that we really can connect them to. There’s nothing that we can really connect them to, and we have to follow a strict guideline set by HUD," Westhouse said.
Shondreka says she knows her faith will carry her through. She's hoping for a miracle.
“I don’t want to lose my kids… If it weren’t for homelessness… I’m a good person,” Shondreka said.
In addition to being a mother, Shondreka wrote a children's book. She can be found on her Facebook here.
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