portraits of the jersey shore from unsafe apartment to finally home sweet home

From Unsafe Apartment to Finally Home Sweet Home

“I am a single mom. My ex-husband was a gambler during our marriage. I was done with him losing all of our savings, our paychecks, for his habit. My girls and I had to make it on our own. My life was such a struggle financially. When the recession hit, I lost my job. At that point I had teenage daughters I needed to provide for, and it was hard to get a new job. So I started my own cleaning business. It is doing well. It is all word of mouth with it, and I have established a good reputation.

“Earlier this year a woman who rented out a condo in Seaside Park had people move out that didn’t take care of the place, so she called me to clean it up. I was living in Seaside Heights at the time. It was very bad there. I went through three different neighbors downstairs, and the neighbors next to me were horrible. There was always screaming and fighting, and the police always had to come. I had to buy video cameras for surveillance just to help me feel safer. I had health issues, and I was so stressed all the time living there. It was awful. I was desperate to get out of there. It turned out the landlord of the condo I was cleaning was looking for someone to lease it. I don’t make a ton of money, but I manage what I have well, and I knew I could do afford it. So I decided to take the opportunity and now I live there.

“After going through so much instability for so long in my life, the most important thing for me was to have a good home. This condo, this town of Seaside Park, is my home now. I can finally have a nice place, where I can have peace and quiet, and get my life together. Getting this condo in such a beautiful town at the shore has been such a gift.”

~ Seaside Park

Join the Conversation on Facebook