Due to damage done by a suspected arsonist, a single father in California is homeless for the second time in as many years, his children uprooted and returned to their mother while he sleeps on couches.
Although the West Coast is many miles from Chattanooga, for East Brainerd Kid to Kid clothing store owner Lyn Shepherd, the impact of the August blaze in Lower Lake, Calif., is much too close to home.
Shepherd owns the duplex where the father lived, one of the many homes that burned to the ground last month. As the former landlord to the now homeless man, she hopes her Lee Highway consignment shop can bring the community together to help.
She is hosting a fundraiser beginning Monday, Sept. 12 to help those who were displaced. Shepherd said many people in the small, economically struggling town of 1,300 residents were renters. Many did not have insurance, she added, and even those who did have been told there will be no rebuilding of the place they once called home.
To make matters worse, Lower Lake, Calif., was home to the state’s third-largest wildfire of 2015, which caused more than $1.5 million in damages. Residents were just beginning to rebuild this year prior to the suspected arson.