I'm rasing the money for my fiancee and our family to restore the childhood home. This home has been in the family for over 40 years. It's where his whole family grew up and ours will grow up. This home and land has been neglected for years. This is his story, my story and now our children that will be shared with the world,
Did you know that in 1968, 85% of children under 18 lived with 2 parents, regardless of marital status. Then by 2020 it was 70%. This was me, part of this sad statistic, and being the youngest of 4 boys. My name Sincere Leon, on our childhood land, home, and all I ever knew since the age of 2. But this house and this property has been on the land for over 40+ years. My grandmother's mother passed it on to her when she was a little girl, and then on to my mother. My struggles to keep this a part of the family has been a difficult one. As the remainder of my cohorts, now knowing you are the only one still caring to maintain, upkeep and oversee the property value and physical appearance of what's left over the years. My overall goal is to restore the home and property to pass it along to the generations to follow.
The mobile home that sits on the property belongs to my mother, who passed away in 1997 due to double pneumonia and AIDS/HIV outbreak. A single mother of 4 boys who would all grow to love, nurture and take care of something handed down to them. The youngest of 4, as a child struggling through school with social anxiety, a speech and language disability, alienation from friends and family plus multiple close related deaths to follow in the years later. Following a chain of tragic events, forced to be homeless, and temporarily bouncing around from place to place. This home, my mother's home, now mine, was the only place that gave me comfort and shelter. Now after losing my grandmother in a house fire on the property in 2012, feeling in my little heart nothing would ever be the same. My grandparents were the main ones to take care of the property since the passing of both my parents in my early childhood. Tragically in the year of 2017 we lost the last caring elder to really care and maintain the property. My grandfather always made it his responsibility to maintain the grass, a garden, cut down his own trees, consistently do yard work, and round up everyone else's land taxes to keep the family together like a community. After his passing, between the remainder of the family, no one has been caring to pay taxes to the county, maintaining the house or even cutting the grass in well over 8 years.
Since traveling that emotionally roller coaster now being blessed with 3 children of my own. My oldest daughter, 11 years old, lives in Orangeburg, South Carolina and my two younger children, 5 and 6 years old, live in Chicago, Illinois. Struggling to be the best father, the best parent to all my children 876 miles away from either child is difficult and now this restoration project of my childhood home can be overwhelming. The challenges we’ve faced are the detriment of sentimental property, thousands of dollars prior invested to renovations, contractors failing to follow through, land taxes and estate matters. These challenges have of course impacted our finances tremendously, caused separation amongst family members and resulted in time away from young children. This has affected me personally because while living and working in Illinois, I’ve been almost forced to come back to the property in these circumstances. Now with threats of foreclosure from the county afoot something needs to be done. It has also affected all my children because I'm forced to be a part-time dad bouncing back state to state when my goal all along was to have them in one state.
The property, roughly 5 acres now all engulfed with trees, shrubbery, and desecrated. When being asked why we/I should care about what happens with my mother’s house, my family land. Let’s think about Lillian(my grandmother), Gwendolyn(my mother), my girls Raziya and Zaharia, and my son, Zayhyr literally the last generation. If we don’t save it there will be nothing left to give to them.
Ultimately, what led me to start this campaign was seeing how far the property has gone downhill since his childhood and now into our adulthood. Feeling the rush of all those sentimental memories and feelings of sadness. Knowing that everything couldn’t be done by ourselves plus moving our family here from the city, at that moment we needed to seek more assistance. He doesn't even recieve SSI or SSDI. We both got denied any assistance from USDA home loans, bank loans or any other loans for that matter. We tried Habitat for Humanities and Catholic Charities all not accepting applications. These allotted funds donated will be utilized to cut down trees and restore his mother’s mobile home, our home to move my family from the dangerous streets of Chicago. Plus providing a home for my oldest to visit in South Carolina. Once, these trees have been cleared from the property a few minor restorations to the mobile home to recondition it back into the loving, children filled joyous place We've always known it to be. Within the home the interior structure, flooring and drywall needs to be replaced in more than a few places throughout the home. The roofing needs to be fixed and a skylight covered in the masters bedroom. Bathroom and kitchen restorations are moderate, front and back steps are both needed to enter and exit the home. Possible new water heater, ac unit and water pump for well water. This land and home, was home for tons of other individuals both family and residential alike. To restore this property would not only mean the world to me, it would benefit the community plus the future generation of my family to follow.
