Season of Sharing helps Bradenton senior with rent amid family health struggles

Mary Jackson’s struggle to keep up with bills is not new.

Even before she sought assistance from Turning Points in November, Jackson’s attempts at juggling bills on her limited income was nearly a monthly battle.

When Jackson received a three-day notice from her landlord in November, she realized it was time to ask for help.

“I knew I had to go,” Jackson said. “I had asked my children, but they had already helped me one time with rent. So I couldn’t ask them again.”

Jackson’s only income is her Social Security Disability Insurance, which she said totals about $1,169 each month. Once she pays the rent, she has only $69 left to cover her other expenses — the car payment and phone and internet bills. Her husband, Willie Jackson, receives about $800 a month from his disability insurance.

For the last month of her stay at the apartment, Jackson scraped together the December rent and $146 for a final notice light bill, “draining” their accounts, she said. After pulling together what money they had left for the December bills, Jackson said she had to choose between paying the rent or the car payment.

With the end of the year a little over a week away, Jackson is still searching for a new place to live. One that she can afford on her own.

Help from Season of Sharing avoided adding an eviction to her list of worries.

Read the full story in the Herald-Tribune