Lincoln Heights family displaced after fire destroys home

A Lincoln Heights relatives has been forced to reside in a camp it set up outdoors of its condominium making where by a devastating house hearth ruined its house.

With nowhere to go pursuing the fire that ruined the family’s condominium unit, the Benitez loved ones established up shop in the parking great deal of its apartment developing. 

Maria Christina Benitez slept in the entrance place with her brother, but for the last three nights they have slept in tents with their moms and dads, in the parking ton of what was at the time her dwelling.

The 14-yr-old teen has struggled to get sleep ever given that the horrific fireplace.

“It truly is been stress filled. I try to remember the 1st working day I failed to slumber at all I stayed awake for the whole working day,” Benitez said. 

A neighbor lent the spouse and children a cover which it is now sleeping beneath, with mattresses. Whatever the family members managed to save, it is really now stacked up close by. 

Neighbors and pals have instructed the household that anything is likely to be good. But in Los Angeles, wherever rent is outrageously and painfully superior, that is simpler reported than accomplished. 

“We’re hoping to raise funds so they can come across a area where they can sense safe and start out to recover,” parishioner Rudy Lopez told CBSLA Reporter Joy Benedict.

Lopez is a parishioner at Sacred Coronary heart Catholic Church throughout the street from the Benitez’s home. Lopez has started a GoFundMe page to help the loved ones who are not finding any assist from the building’s landlord.

“The landlord is refusing to be cooperative and just give them the deposit and send out them away,” Lopez saod.

The family’s former property is a lease control constructing, meaning it does not pay back additional than $1000 a thirty day period in hire. 

The Benitez loved ones has lived here for 19 yrs. Finding everywhere close to what it compensated for every thirty day period for rent is practically unattainable. 

As it is, it truly is hard to discover anyplace in LA with rent all over $1,500. A drastic jump for a loved ones that operates tough to make finishes meet up with every single thirty day period.

Gabriel Benitez, the patriarch of the family, employed to be a cook in advance of the pandemic began and is now working as a working day laborer. His son is scheduled to go to Cal State LA in the drop and his daughter is in significant university, which is why the neighborhood is rallying to discover them a extra permanent answer.  

“I’d like to thank the people that gave us income from the GoFundMe. It implies a ton to us,” Maria Christina Benitez stated.