Success Stories

For Tammie T. of Guilford County, NC, battling colon cancer became overwhelming while she faced numerous challenges throughout the pandemic.

Tammie made ends meet by waitressing and earning tips from regular customers. “I have colon cancer and I go once every other week for chemo,” Tammie says. “My cancer has progressed, and I could not work as much waitressing anymore. With ya’ll helping, I can stand up and breathe again.”

The program helped Tammie cover her past due mortgage payments so that she could get back on track while attending chemotherapy treatments. “This program is a blessing,” she says. “The program staff contacted my mortgage company and got them off my back.”

For Jessica G. in Mecklenburg County, NC, the COVID-19 pandemic put a devastating strain on household finances. After working at her hospital for six years, Jessica faced a tremendous loss in work hours as a patient services representative. “It sounds crazy to not have work hours in a hospital during the pandemic,” she says, “but I worked 120 hours a week prior to the pandemic and those hours were then cut.”

Jessica learned of NCHAF through her electric company, Duke Energy. The program helped Jessica stay afloat by assisting her with past due mortgage payments that accumulated while she picked up work hours again as an elderly companion. “I got the assistance I needed during a difficult time in my life. My case manager was responsive with getting me the answers I needed. I am so grateful.”

For many North Carolinians, like Karen M. of Hoke County, the pandemic felt like a bad rollercoaster ride. Karen is a surgical tech by trade and knows firsthand how lucky she is to have survived the COVID-19 pandemic. “I had to video chat with families to share the news that their family members would not make it,” she says. Karen’s work hours decreased to 20 hours weekly and she had to exhaust her savings account. “My credit cards were maxed out and my credit score dropped,” she says.

The NCHAF program assisted Karen by paying her past due mortgage payments. “The physical and mental toll that the pandemic has taken on those of us in the medical field has been difficult,” says Karen. “When I found out I was awarded with mortgage assistance, I dropped the phone and said ‘Hallelujah!’”

The last thing I remember was losing my taste and smell. I walked into the hospital, but then I woke up two months later in a nursing home. I had been in a coma, and became paralyzed on my left side. I had to stay in the nursing home to further my recovery for another month or so.

While I was sick with Covid we lost so much. The only things I didn’t lose were my faith in God, my husband, and my home. I came home and they shut our power off. They repossessed our car. I couldn’t get in or out of the house because we couldn’t get a ramp built. I prayed to God that I wouldn’t lose my home. I didn’t know where my husband and I would go if we did. We had a very good interest rate and had built up some equity, but we had gotten so far behind.

I am truly blessed and God sent the right people into my life to help me. God came through. Churches came and built ramps for us. Strangers prepared us meals and helped us around the house. My husband couldn’t work because he had to become my full-time caretaker.

I was watching television when I saw information on the NCHAF program. I called the number and I submitted my application. It took a while to get sorted, but I am so grateful that my mortgage has been paid up. It is such a relief, and such a weight off!

I want people to know that there are programs out there that can help. Life can change in an instant. We had A-1 credit and never missed a payment, to being faced with losing our home and we can’t even get a loan for a car. Every time there was a knock at the door I was terrified that it was the Sheriff to take us out of the house. And now our house is saved! God is good and God provides!