Starting All Over

Patrice is a Byrd Barr Place Client

Patrice was living in Columbia City with her youngest daughter and six-year-old grandson when she learned that her landlord intended to sell her spacious five-bedroom home.

Not prepared for what a hardship moving would be in rapidly redeveloping Seattle, she suddenly found herself houseless for the first time. It took five months to find her next home and, not able to afford storage for her furnishings, she gave most of them away. When Patrice was finally able to get settled again, she learned that her new home was heated by oil—and wasn’t able to afford the high up-front costs to fill the empty tank.

“I had no beds, no heat, nothing really. I was starting all over, and everything seemed to be happening at once,” she says.

Patrice reached out to the City of Seattle for help and was referred to Byrd Barr Place. Being employed full-time with the Boys and Girls Clubs of King County, she was just above the income eligibility guidelines to qualify for energy assistance, but our program manager found another way to help.

“I felt very blessed when they called to let me know there was another program called Bridge the Gap that could help me during this hard time,” Patrice says. Thanks to generous donors, Byrd Barr Place was able to arrange for $425 dollars of oil to be sent to Patrice’s home during a very cold Seattle winter. Now, she is able to focus on her family instead of an empty oil drum.